I'm still bored so I'm back again. This is a major chapter that explains a lot as to Marcy and her ways. If your trigger is abuse, avoid this chapter.
Enjoy (if you can) and review!
NJPNJPNJP
"Mikey, I know you're busy prepping for your show next weekend but I really think Mal needs a night out." Mercedes started. "It's been six days and he still is in a daze over Marcy leaving."
"I think it's because people keep saying she left like she's not coming back…?" Mike drank his coffee.
"What if she doesn't?" Her eyes were wide with fear.
"Why wouldn't she?"
"Maybe this is all too much for her? Being a wife and mother? She hates being pregnant and she's going to have six kids all under the age of four. She never wanted to get married. She's only 19 years old and has all these responsibilities. It's a lot."
"I know but Marcy shoulders her responsibilities. She always has." He lifted a shoulder.
"You never know what will be someone's breaking point."
He inclined his head. "Good point but I don't think she's gone for good."
"What if she is? Mal will have to raise three kids on his own and wonder about three other kids and if she put them up for adoption or even worse! has an abortion while she still can!"
"Marcy's pro-life." Mike snorted.
"Marcy's also anti-stuck. She hates being stuck in an impossible situation."
"At the very most, she's taking a breather. We owe her that."
"Why are you so calm about this?!"
He kissed her. "I might not know how to deal with her being suicidal but I know my little sister. She's attached to her kids. Even Mal. Probably us. She won't be gone long."
She buried her face in his chest with a pout. "Promise?"
He wrapped his arms around her loosely. "I swear. Now you go to a spa or something with Quinn and Santana. Invite Rou so she can get her mind off this Yuria business. We'll take Mal out tonight."
"Okay." She reached up to kiss him before waving to Puck and Artie. "Bye, guys."
"Bye, Mama." Puck waved back, hating to see his "Hot Mama" so upset.
"See you, MJ." Artie waved, too also not liking his partner upset.
Mike waited until he couldn't hear her anymore and came back to the table. "I know it's wrong but I've avoided Mal because of all the stuff Marc said is going on over there. Mal has never done well without Marcy."
"You really think Mini Mama bounced to show us how it felt when we dipped on her?" Puck asked.
Mike wasn't sure. "We won't know until she comes back."
MMC
"How's your brother?" Santana asked.
"Which one?" Quinn continued looking through the fridge for something to drink.
"Little Chang. Jimi said he wasn't happy about last night."
"Yeah, Puck said he was a little upset about leaving home when Marcy could come back at any moment but Momma Rose got him to go out." She closed the fridge and grabbed ingredients to make lemonade.
"Jimi said he did not have fun. Just drank and stewed until they left."
"I feel so bad for him. I can't believe MarcAn refuses to take our calls. Anything could happen to Riley or the twins. It's so irresponsible of her to ignore us like this."
"I just really want to know what's going on. I mean she just left in the middle of the day. Out of nowhere."
"No." Quinn frowned. "Not out of nowhere. She got a phone call."
"What?" Santana's forehead furrowed. "What do you mean?"
Quinn stopped moving. "Remember she got a phone call? She was telling you about…-?"
"The shop and paying bills!" Santana remembered.
"Yeah! And we kept talking while she was on the phone but I remember she wasn't speaking a language I know."
Santana frowned. "Whoa. So what does that mean?"
"I'm not sure. But I think that whatever that phone call was about is why she left. And honestly? I don't think it was good."
MMC
Marcy closed the door after herself and locked it. Her dogs ran from all over the house and pounced on her. She fell to the ground and let them lick her, knowing it was her fault.
Eventually she grew tired of it and pushed them away. She sat up then climbed to her feet and picked up her luggage. She walked to the kitchen, not expecting anyone to be in there but was surprised to see Rose, Judy, Mal, Marc, Laura and the twins and babies. "Hey."
No one said anything for a moment before the twins ran to her. "Mommy!"
"Hey, babies!" She set her things down and kissed them. "No, don't kiss me back. I have doggy spit everywhere."
The twins didn't care but hugged her anyway.
"Don't cry. There's nothing to cry over."
"Welcome home, sweetie." Rose gave Marcy a wet paper towel.
Thankfully it had soap on it so Marcy cleaned her face. "Thanks, Momma."
"Did you have fun?" Judy was wildly uncomfortable.
"No."
The discomfort grew to epic proportions.
Mal got up and went over to her. He hugged her fiercely before letting her go. "I'm so angry with you right now, I can't even talk to you."
"Okay." Marcy nodded.
"Okay?! What do you mean okay?!"
"I thought you weren't talking to me?" Marcy was very confused.
Mal drew back, appalled by her audacity.
"Look- where's Yuria?"
"You're more worried about your friend than your husband right now?"
"Mal, where's Yuria?"
"Unbelievable!" He strode away to come back then away in an odd elongated version of pacing.
"Not to put a fine point on it but WHERE IS YURIA?"
"No one's seen her in four days." Laura spoke up. "Rou kicked her out."
"What?" Both Marcy and Mal were confused.
"Rou told her she had to leave because she knew what was going on and didn't tell anyone."
Marcy internalized her feelings. "I'll deal with Rou later. I have to find Yuria."
"What's so important that you have to find Yuria?" Judy asked.
Marcy shook her head and tried to leave but the twins were wrapped around her legs. "Let go, babies. Mommy has to go upstairs alone right now. Mommy promises to be back down to play with you in half an hour. That's just thirty minutes."
"Thirty?" Mally wanted to confirm.
"Ask Grams how long that is. You can set a timer and everything."
"Okay." The twins went back to the table.
Mal came back to Marcy. "You and I need to talk."
"That's going to have to wait." Marcy shook her head.
"Really?! I have to wait?!"
"I know you don't understand and I'm sorry for that but you're just going to have to be patient."
"And what if I refuse?"
"You have no choice. I'm not talking to you until after I talk to Yuria."
"Fine. Come find me when you feel I'm important enough to talk to." He walked out.
"I'll go talk to him." Marc slid out.
"Thanks, Marc." Marcy waved. "I'll see you guys later."
"She sure makes life interesting." Judy quipped.
Rose threw a dish towel at her.
MMC
Mercedes swirled her spoon in her tea, lazily moving the seeds at the bottom. "Has it been 30 minutes yet?"
"Not quite." Rose murmured.
"I hate waiting." Quinn blew out a breath.
"You should have let me cook something!" Judy accused.
"No!" The others shouted.
She pouted. "I have nervous energy! I could have used cooking to get over it!"
"Cleaning up after me helped, Sis." Rose offered.
"A little."
"See? You used up some energy-" A bell dinged. "It's been thirty minutes!"
They all waited but nothing happened for a full minute.
Quinn slumped. "I can't believe her!"
"Believe who?" Marcy walked in.
"You're here!"
"I live here." Marcy looked (was) confused.
Mercedes got up and waddled over to give her a hug. "We missed you!"
"I was gone for a week…"
"Seven whole days!"
"That's usually how you measure a week…"
Mercedes pinched her.
"Ow! Hey! I'm pregnant!" Marcy pinched her back.
"Ow! I'm farther along than you!"
"Oh well." Marcy threw her braid over her shoulder.
Mercedes jammed her fists on her hips. "Where were you?!"
"Where's Mal?"
"We don't know. He hasn't been in and Marc never came back." Laura answered.
"Where were you?!" Mercedes repeated.
"None of your business." Marcy walked out.
"How can she say that?! We watched her kids!" Mercedes stomped a foot.
"You did?" Rose raised an eyebrow.
Mercedes smiled guiltily. "We helped you watch her kids?"
"Uh huh."
MMC
"There you are." Marcy found Mal (and Marc) in his development space. She closed the door behind herself. "I couldn't find you for a while."
"I'll give you two some space." Marc left, giving his sister a squeeze on the way out.
Marcy watched Mal work. She couldn't quite gauge his mood but was fairly certain he was pissed. So she waited.
It took ten minutes but he finally spoke. "You're not going to explain yourself?"
"What do you want to know?"
He set down a bottle roughly and whipped around to stare at her incredulously. "What do I want to know?! I want to know why you left like you did!"
"There was an emergency."
"An emergency?! With who?! Our family is here! Where?! Where did you go?!"
"I can tell you're upset and you have a right to be but-"
"You're damn right I have a right to be! You left me! After all that talk about how wrong it was for me to leave you! Was it punishment?! Was this payback so I could see how it felt to be all alone?!"
"Okay, one, you were not alone. Yuria told me how everyone was over all the time. You didn't want to be bothered."
"Oh so this is my fault?!"
"I didn't say that! I'm not talking to you while you're being so emotional. When you're ready to talk like an adult, I'll be waiting."
He glared at her as she slammed out then breathed sharply. This wasn't his fault. He would not apologize to her. He would not apologize-
MMC
"I'm sorry." He couldn't believe he was apologizing to her. It was after dinner and the kids had been put to sleep and she was reading in bed. He'd come up because he was thinking so hard, he wasn't paying attention and accidentally ruined a roll of film.
"Why are you sorry?"
"I'm sorry for- why do I have to do this? Why do I have to defend my apology?!"
"I'm asking why are you sorry in the first place because you hadn't done anything wrong but you're starting to piss me off!"
"Why can't we ever just talk? It always turns into a fight."
"I'm Italian. I don't know what the hell your problem is." She pulled her book up further to cover her face.
"Marce." He came closer.
"I don't know." She set the book aside. "I'm sorry. It's just been crazy and- I don't know. It wasn't supposed to be like this. I was going to call you from the plane and explain things better but you showed up and things got outta hand."
"Okay, I'm listening." He sat next to her in bed. "What happened?"
"There was an emergency. I was needed. I had to leave right then."
"Where did you go? What emergency?"
"I can't tell you."
"What?" His voice changed.
"You heard me." She wished this wouldn't be a fight but knew it was about to be one.
"You can't tell me?"
"Mal,-"
"What do you mean you can't tell me?!"
"Mal, stop it."
"I can't believe you're doing this to me! You stood up there and promised to be mine but you're keeping secrets! Does Yuria know?! Is that what you were doing?! Some thing for her?!"
"Yes and no. I told you; I can't tell you."
"Why do you think it's fair that you can keep secrets from me?! I don't keep secrets from you!"
"Ellen!" She lost her temper.
"Oh my-! Get over that! It's been nearly three years!"
"It's been thirteen months since you found out about the miscarriages but you bitch about that!"
"What?! What?! That's totally different!"
"How is that different?!"
"You kept that from me for years! I had children that died! She was just a girlfriend!"
"Oh come off it! They were fetuses that you had no clue about but Ellen? you hid that from me for two fucking years then threw it in my face when I was at my lowest-!"
"I didn't know-!"
"Because you didn't ask!"
"I was drunk!"
"So was I! The day I agreed to marry you!"
"You asked me first!"
"Because I was pregnant and out of my mind! Every time you infect me with your seed, I lose my mind but not this time!" She got up and grabbed an afghan from the bottom of the bed before snatching up one of her pillows.
"Where are you going?!"
"None of your business!" She stormed out.
He debated following her but didn't want to wake up the whole house.
MMC
Karou rubbed her eyes and yawned when she came into the kitchen. "Hey, Aunt Rose."
"Good morning, Karou." Rose spoke.
Karou shuffled to the table. "Am I late?"
"No, you're right on time." Marcy set down a bowl of fruit.
Karou's eyes widened and she gave a gladdened shout. "You're back!"
Marcy stopped her from embracing her. "No."
"Are you serious?! You've been gone for days and I can't get a hug?!"
"We need to talk about you and your lack of boundaries."
"Me-? My what?!"
"You are aware this is my house, right? What gives you the right to throw somebody out of my house?"
Karou sighed. "She told you? She was wrong. She should have told us where you were and what you were doing."
"No, you're wrong. It wasn't your business. It wasn't her business all the way and she stayed in her lane. If I wanted you to know, I would have told you. My phone worked perfectly. I was ignoring you."
Karou's lips pursed angrily. "You were ignoring me?!"
"Yes! I was ignoring everyone, including my husband and kids! It was none of your business and she respected that! Why can't you listen when people tell you stuff?!"
"I thought I was listening when we pledged to be best friends forever but I guess I was wrong! Didn't you say last year that you wanted us to still be friends?!"
"Being friends is more than what you want, Rou! I needed space but of course you couldn't have given me any!"
"Because humans share! All you ever want is space!"
"Because you want so much from people! Damn! give us a break, Rou! We have to be tuned into you 365 all day, everyday! It's exhausting! You're exhausting!"
"I didn't know it was such a hardship being my friend." Karou felt like crying (which she'd been doing since Yuria left).
"It's not always. You're tops but man, do you make it hard to not wanna strangle you. You don't have to sleep around and you don't have to be hyperactive. We'll like you quiet, I promise."
Karou turned away.
"And of course you're going to milk this for all it's worth. For a comedic actress, you're too damn dramatic!"
"I think I've overstayed my welcome."
"Yup." Marcy sighed heavily.
"Oh?! So I have?!"
"I was answering myself. I said to myself, I said, "Self?" and myself said, "Whatup?". I said, "this heifa is going to drag this out and get all in her feelings" and myself said, "Sho, you right."."
Marc snickered even after Laura hit him.
"So you're mocking me?" Karou was not amused.
"Get out, Rou." Marcy said seriously. "Go to rehearsals, take a self day, go find Yuria! but don't come back until you've found out why you act the way you do and have steps to fix it. You're way too clingy and you're suffocating me."
"Fine." Karou walked out.
"Marce." Laura didn't even know what to say. She couldn't imagine herself and China having that conversation.
"I'm tired, Laura. I'm about to have six kids. I'm married. I own my own business and home. I'm sick of drama. It's time to grow up." Marcy sat.
"What does that mean for you and Mal?" Marc asked.
Marcy said nothing; because she didn't know what to say.
"I heard you last night."
Marcy hated that and her face reflected her displeasure. "Oh."
"Maybe you should try to find some common ground with him?"
She thought through her options quickly before nodding once. "I'm truly tired of drama. It has to end."
Rose smiled. "Good. Then you can make up with your cousin."
"Momma…"
"Just saying."
MMC
"I'm telling you; last night was stifling and I talked to Laura this morning and she said that Marc said that they fought last night."
"Mercy, we should try to mind our own business." Mike said not for the first time.
"Mikey,-" Mercedes geared herself up to talk him down.
He grabbed her shoulders and kissed her. "Stop it!"
She headbutted him. "I wish I was having a mood-swing."
He thanked everything that she was not. "You can't fix everything between them."
"We always thought that things would be perfect once they got together and they're not."
"To be fair, they had two good months." He smirked.
She gave him a certain look that said exactly how not funny she thought that was.
"Right." He wiped his face clean. "Okay, fine. I'll go over there with you and I'll try to talk to him-"
"No." She shook her head. "You have to talk to her."
"Why? He-"
"No, you have to talk to her. You haven't spent one on one time together since they got married. In fact; your last conversation was the day Maddie's friends left and that was a disaster."
"Thank you, Mercy." He sighed.
"My point is you two need to talk. You can't keep avoiding her."
"Yes, I can. I've been doing so beautifully."
"Mikey." She stuck her bottom lip out and widened her eyes.
He frowned. He always fell for the eye-pout. "Alright!"
"Yay!" She hopped on her toes and clapped before leaving a big pink lip-print on his cheek.
He smiled deeply. The things this woman could make him do.
MMC
Paris peeked around the corner. "Hey, Cuz."
"No, Paris." Marcy didn't even look up.
"You have no idea what I'm going to say!"
"You're going to try to talk us into talking but I said what I had to say. And I meant what I said."
"She's so hurt. Can't you see that she's in pain?"
Marcy looked up. Her eyes were hard with bitterness. "Get out."
"Marce!" Paris's shoulders slumped. "Please just talk to her! Let her know that you still care about her!"
"How about you tell her the truth? That's never occurred to you, has it? But what to expect from Ms. Fix-It?"
"Don't tear me down just because you're mad at her." Paris stood straight.
"It's not tearing you down. It's the truth." Marcy stood up and walked around the desk in her office. "Let's play What's Wrong with Paris?."
"That's not fair." Paris didn't want to play any game that'd make her cry.
"Really? We're quite a set. The Drama Queen, the Cry Baby and the Walking Corpse."
"I never called you that!"
"But it's what you think. It's what you all think. Let me tell you that you don't know me. Live my life then tell me how to smile."
"You don't let anyone in!"
"Forget it, Paris." Karou said from behind her brown haired cousin.
"No! This has to be said! You guys are just alike! You can't throw that away because of pregnancy mood-swings!"
"Pregnancy mood-swings?!" Marcy was offended to her core. "The both of you, get out."
"Marcy,-!"
Marcy walked out of the room, both followed her. She yanked open the front door to shove them out but Mal was there, sticking his key in. "Hey."
"Hey." He dropped his hand.
They all just stood there for a moment until they heard footfalls behind Mal.
"You're home!" Mercedes had been waiting all day for Mal to come back. "We need to talk!"
"No!" Marcy pulled on Mal's arm. "We need to talk. All of you, get out."
Mal set his things on the couch then followed Marcy to her office.
"Are they talking over their fight from last night?" Mercedes wondered.
"Merce, we should go." Mike could feel a pit in his stomach. Something was about to happen and he didn't like it.
"No." She refused to hear it. "Where's Laura and Marc? We should make sure their talk goes well then we need to talk to them."
"Mercy,-"
"No, we need to talk to her." Paris cut him off. "She's gone crazy!"
"Laura told me about this morning." Mercedes hugged Karou.
"At least one of you is nice." Karou hugged her tightly.
"You better mean one of her sisters!" Paris was offended.
Mike rubbed his temples and sighed deeply. Why was his family crazy?
MMC
"You said we need to talk." Mal said when Marcy was quiet.
She didn't know how to start it but if he wanted to dive in, she could do that. "We have to stop fighting."
"I agree." He said readily enough.
"What do we have to do to come to some common ground?"
"You tell me where you were."
"I'm not doing that." Why couldn't he understand that?!
"Why not?! How can you keep stuff from me?!"
"You do realize I signed a marriage contract and not a soul transfer agreement? You don't own me."
"Yes, I do." He would stand by this until the day he died.
"It wasn't me that broke up you and Ellen. It had nothing to do with me. It was you! She could feel the crazy coming off you in waves and ran!"
"What?! Don't you dare talk Ellen to me! The only reason I didn't love her the way she deserved was because of you! You tiny, crazy demon!" He pointed with each insult.
"Well this demon fucked her!"
"What?!"
"You heard me! I fucked your girlfriend! Before we left America, I spent eight hours at her house, in her room, on her bed making her scream my name!"
He ran his hands over his face. "You're insane."
"Take a good look in the mirror. You're a hop away." She glared at him.
"You'd do anything to get out of doing the right thing."
"The right thing?! I would do anything?! You did me wrong for two years-!"
"And you did me wrong for five!"
"What the hell could you have done?!"
"Anything! I would have had the fucking right to do anything but you didn't give me the chance! What gives you the right-?!"
"It's my fucking body and I don't need your permission for anything I do with it." She opened the door and stormed out, not even seeing her siblings (all the ones in Italy) and two cousins in her anger.
He stomped out after her, following her to the living room where he caught her arm and yanked her around. "What the hell does that mean?! Did you do something to get rid of my babies?! Did you get abortions?!"
Marcy snatched away from him as the others plus Rose and Judy entered the room, and pushed him. "Fuck you, Mal! You have no idea what I went through and you have the fucking nerve to say I got abortions?!"
"What am I supposed to think?! You say nothing about them and you expect me to just get over it! But you did. Because you have no heart. You probably didn't even care. You were probably glad-"
She slapped him and prodded his chest. "Don't you ever say that shit again. My children mean everything to me. More than my friends, more than my family, more than you, more than me. I could have died when those happened to me and I had nobody."
"Because you didn't tell anybody. That's your fault." He tried not to feel guilty.
"I was supposed to tell who? you? Why? What the fuck do you know about anything? With your perfect life-?"
"Perfect?! My life?! I wasted my entire life on you! Wanting you, waiting for you! I didn't have a life! I had patience!"
"What did I have?!"
Rose looked down as tears pricked her eyes and guilt pierced her heart.
"My life was awful and nobody cared! After all I went through and you just… waited. You just waited? I went through hell!"
"So who is he?" Mal shrugged.
"Who is whom?!"
"The guy you have stashed somewhere! Because this is what you do! You play with me until you get bored and then you find somebody somewhere else that catches your attention so yeah, who is he?!"
"You want to know where I was?!" She dashed away tears. "I was in fucking Mondiva!"
"Mondiva?! Where's that?! Who the fuck is in Mondiva?!"
"Why do you think we had sex?"
"Because that's what you do-!"
"Not me and somebody else, you fuckstick! Me. and. you!"
He swallowed and lifted a shoulder jerkily. "I don't know. You matured fast."
"No twelve year old girl wants to have sex unless something's fucked, Mal!" She screamed.
"Then what?" He felt like he was about to hear something he didn't want to. "Why'd you ask me to have sex?"
She swallowed thickly and glared at him. "You had no idea what I was going through. I was never anywhere nice. People didn't treat me with kindness. They weren't warm. I was hurt and abused since the moment I left Ohio."
"So you-?"
She shook her head and prodded his chest. "I developed early. You noticed immediately. You really think you were the only one?"
"I mean I know boys used to tease you-"
"Not boys. I could deal with some idiot punk getting stupid over a pair of A-cups but not men. Not men."
"What?" He was deliberately lost, hoping that she'd stop talking.
"They'd look and it made me feel awful. And I was in places that they'd do more than stare. They'd touch and whisper things that no grown ass man has a right to tell a child. And I knew. I knew one day I would not be able to fight one off and I had a decision to make.
Was my first time going to be taken by force from some old man that had no business touching a twelve year old with anything other than familial love? Or did I want my first time with someone I thought would have my back?
Someone I thought loved me?"
"Marce,-" He had nothing but she wasn't done.
She sniffed hard. "So we did it. And I was so happy to have a friend like you. Somebody who thought about me and cared what happened to me."
"Marcy." Mercedes mumbled, horrified. "You worried for nothing, right? Nothing happened?"
Marcy looked at her, her tears making her eyes glisten, her anger and bitterness making the sage orbs hard. "Again and again."
Quinn clapped a hand to her mouth.
Marcy looked back at Mal. "The first time was after I miscarried the first time. And then it kept happening and I swore that no man was going to touch me again without me getting something out of it."
"What does that mean?" Laura didn't want to know and didn't know why she'd asked.
"I began selling my body." Marcy stared hard at Mal, who refused to look at her. "That's right. I became a whore, a prostitute, a hooker. Whatever you want to call it. And what's worse is I got other people involved in it. Anybody who felt like me and wanted to take back control? I found them no matter where I was because where we were, nobody cared about us.
And I was good. I did everything from dates to homework to taxes to sex. That's why I know how to run a business. Because I kept that one running for five years.
Anybody with money or something as good as got my service. That's where I was last week. An old John was actually really old and he was dying. His dying wish was to see me so I went."
She tried to catch Mal's eye. "Do you feel better now? Now you know. You've married a dirty, low down, common slut."
Mal opened his mouth as he looked at her then closed it before walking out.
"Yeah!" She shouted at his back. "That's what I thought."
"Marcy." Rose whispered brokenly.
Marcy barely gave her a look before walking out.
Judy went to Rose and wrapped an arm around her. "We'll get through this. We'll get through this."
Mercedes made to leave but Mike stopped her. He kissed her forehead and walked out. So Mercedes went to Marc to have him hold her.
Laura and Quinn had the same idea as Karou and Paris hugged each other and cried.
Today was not a good day…
Next time on This Life I Lead… Mike makes a promise as Marc and Laura hold down the fort. Mal disappears as their friends question what's going on.
