Chapter 46: The Black Tulip

Like a small boat

On the ocean
Sending big waves
Into motion
Like how a single word
Can make a heart open
I might only have one match
But I can make an explosion

And all those things I didn't say
Wrecking balls inside my brain
I will scream them loud tonight
Can you hear my voice this time?
...Rachael Platten - Fight Song

Jessie had finished a helping of breakfast and then she was pouring over the collection of old photos Jack had given her while he insisted on chipping away at her chains. Every so often, he would explain who was who in the pictures. It was nice putting faces to the names in Jack's story.

There was a family photo of Madame Boss, Giovanni, Joseph, and Jack on the day that Jack met Miya. Jessie could tell by the little blue blanket in Madam Boss's arms. Madame Boss was every bit as severe looking as Jack described her. In her youth, she was probably very beautiful. She had that sort of face. Her white hair had been pulled back into a tight bun and she only gave the camera a sort of half-smile. Giovanni and Joseph had inherited her steely grey eyes. Jack had definitely looked like the most likeable member of his family. Or maybe Jessie was just biased.

There was one of Miya and her partners. Jessie could pick out Catherine right away. She looked exactly like Cassidy. The other blond, Daphne, was shorter with short hair curled around her face. She looked almost like she was trying to keep up with the other two, with the way that she deliberately puffed herself up to look larger than what she was.

There was a few of Jessie as a baby. In one, she was hours old, lying in the plastic incubator that she was placed in following her early birth. In another, she was a few months old, cuddled up to Miya's chest. In another, she was about a year old, pawing at a baby vulpix as a ninetails looked on. There was one where she was two and Jack was holding her on his arcanine's back. There were even a few of her and Cassidy and their mothers.

"Why'd Giovanni let you have these?" Jessie asked.

"I guess he thought that they would make me ache for those days," Jack answered, "and they do."

Then there was one picture in particular that had Jessie's full attention. On a sunny winter day, her younger self was latched onto a blue-haired boy's arm and showed no signs of letting go. Young Jessie smiled confidently as little James Morgan smiled shyly at her. She could tell right away that it was James. He had the most beautiful green eyes and the shy little grin that was all James. She looked at it for a long time, memorizing their younger selves. She was sure if someone blended the two children together, the resulting child would look like her perfect daughter, with purple hair and bright blue eyes or like her beautiful boy with a shock of red hair and innocent green eyes. A curious mixture of sadness and hope brewed inside Jessie as she stared down at the photograph of her and her soul mate. She missed him, ached for him so much that it hurt, yet she couldn't shake the feeling that someday, they would be fated to meet again, and she yearned for that day.

"Taken that day at the zoo," Jack explained.

"I love it," Jessie said, "If you put us together, you'd get Henry and Rose."

Jack chuckled, "Well, that makes sense, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, but...well...you know…"

"I do," Jack replied, "I wish there were pictures of them that I could see."

"When we get out of here, you can see them in person," Jessie offered. Jack smiled sadly.

"You'll be getting out of here before me," he promised.

"But-"

"You're the priority here," Jack assured her, "You need to get back to those grandchildren of mine."

"But you've been here for twenty-two years," Jessie reminded him.

"And I can wait a little longer if it means your freedom," Jack told her firmly, "Me...I'm willing to wait for-"

He stopped abruptly.

"What's that?" Jessie asked. It sounding like a whirring beating of wings.

"Helicopter," Jack replied, frowning as he got to his feet, "Though there's still a good two weeks before the supply copter comes in."

"I have a bad feeling about this," Jessie muttered, shifting to hide the evidence of her attempted escape. Somehow, Jessie was sure that it would not be good for them if the Rockets discovered her trying to escape. Jack got to his feet and looked out the window.

"So do I," he agreed, "Your friend, Princess Slut Bitch, has returned, along with Piece of Shit."

"Oh goodie," Jessie griped, rolling her eyes as Jack retreated to a chair on the other side of the room, his eyes trained on the door. For a moment, they both stared at the door and neither of them were very surprised when it burst open. That changed when Jessie saw who had entered the cabin.

There, standing in the doorway, flanked by the two grunts, was a blond, purple-eyed young woman of twenty-two.

"Domino?" Jessie ejected before she could stop herself. Domino grinned.

"Morning, Jessie," she greeted, stepping inside the cabin. Her grunts, this time a woman with rich auburn hair and light blue eyes, and a man with dark hair and eyes, had guns trained upon Jack, who barely paid any attention to them. The woman held a video camera. Odd.

"I see you have some new flunkies," Jessie observed, trying to regain her composure and ignore the fact that her father was at gunpoint. Domino smirked.

"Cassidy and Butch had some other things to deal with. They say 'hello'," she said conversationally as she walked over to Jessie's wall and glanced down at Jessie's injured ankle, "So does James."

Jessie started and stared up at Giovanni's favourite agent, who still looked like the cat who got the canary.

"Have you heard that he's getting married?" Domino asked, "Certainly didn't take him long to move onto something new."

"And it won't take him long to get the hell out of there," Jessie added, crossing her arms.

"Oh, I don't think he'll want to leave," Domino replied, "He's been living in the lap of luxury with his bride-to-be and he's been enjoying every minute of it."

"Right," Jessie said sardonically, "and swinub fly, magikarp are useful, and snorlax are anorexic."

"You know what he says, Jessie?" Domino questioned, a glint still in her eyes, "He says that the only things missing are those children of his."

Jessie paled and the confident expression slipped off her face. Giovanni knew about her children. Her last bit of hope dashed.

"Ah, a little shocked?" Domino taunted, "So was I. If it were me, I'd be all for letting the brats starve, but that James has a soft spot. I suppose that's what Jessiebelle finds so endearing about him. She's even going to open up her home to them. Isn't that sweet?"

"Jessiebelle doesn't have a sweet bone in her body," Jessie spat, "and the only thing that no good wench finds so endearing about MY boyfriend is his money!"

"Believe what you want, Jessica," Domino said, "but the fact remains that I was sent here to obtain a little information and I didn't fly all this way to leave empty handed. Where are the children?"

"Fuck you," Jessie said slowly, ensuring that Domino's tiny brain could comprehend the meaning behind the words. She would not budge. She would not betray her children.

"Wrong answer," Domino said, and then she brought her foot down on Jessie's broken ankle. Jessie howled in pain.

"Hey!" Jack protested, moving forward, but the grunts blocked him.

"Quiet, Pops," Domino spat, "Now, Jessie, where are they?"

"Go fuck yourself," Jessie gasped. Domino actually looked a little delighted that Jessie continued to resist. She twirled one of her black tulips in her nimble fingers.

"Jessie, Jessie, Jessie," Domino sighed, "You really need to clean up that language," she commented, "Let me help you."

Then pain. So much pain as that dark flower hit Jessie with a blue electric light. Then it stopped.

"Let's try again, shall we?" Domino asked. Jessie glared.

"You've clearly never been zapped by a pikachu, have you Domino?" she taunted. Domino grinned again.

"Shall we upgrade to Zapdos?" Domino asked, and Jessie was hit by another jet of deadly blue electricity. This time it hurt more. Pikachu had nothing on the sheer hot, burning sensation that Domino's tulip sent through Jessie's body. When Domino finally let up, Jessie was gasping and rolling on the ground in pain, that awful sound of rattling chains filling the cabin as she did so. It took a moment for Jessie to become aware of anything but her own pain, but then she saw Jack sitting on the floor across the room, clutching his face as the male grunt stood over him, the butt of the gun raised. Jack moved his hands and Jessie saw that her father was now sporting a black eye.

"No one, not even your heroic little roommate, can help you now," Domino whispered, "So why don't you make things easy on yourself and tell me where those little brats of yours are, hmm?"

"F…No…" Jessie panted.

"Have it your way…" Domino shrugged.

"Wait!" Jack cried, but his calls went unheeded. Jessie was shocked again with the same excruciating intensity. Again, she was left nearly delirious with pain. Her limbs were stiff and she could still feel the lingering heat and tingles throughout her body.

"You're going to kill her!" Jack shouted, struggling to get to his feet, even as the male grunt knocked him in the shoulder with the butt of the gun.

"In a perfect world, yes," Domino said maliciously, "I always finish what I start."

"Not gonna…not…James…" Jessie grimaced.

"James is going to die," Domino hissed, "unless you tell me where to find those brats of yours."

Of course that penetrated the fog of Jessie's mind. After years of protecting James against bullies and the boss, she felt that familiar intense urge to protect him…but as much as she loved James, there were two innocent little three-year-olds that she loved more, who needed her more. It took so much effort for Jessie just to lift her head and struggle to her hands and knees, but when she did, she locked eyes with Domino.

"Never."

Domino's mouth curled into an ugly snarl and she spat, "Then I'll kill him! I'll kill him and I'll make you watch."

Jessie's hard blue eyes held Domino's frantic purple ones and very slowly, she said, "Both of us would rather be dead. You fail."

Then the blue light hit her again, brighter and more intense, but oddly, it didn't burn as much as before. Jessie only felt the slight tingle as the electricity hit her body. Maybe I'm dying, she thought. Maybe this is the end.

She was unbelievably aware.

Aware as Jack struggled again to get up and help her.

Aware as the floor began to shake underneath her.

Aware as a little red and white ball burst through the floorboards in front of her and opened in a haze of white and orange flames.

Aware as the sides of the cabin burst away.

Aware as the blue light faded and Domino and her grunts fled.

Aware as a rush of familiar figures raced towards her.

Aware as the cuffs around her wrists fell to the floor.

Then she fell forward, collapsing to the floor, knowing no more as she slipped away.

TBC

Domino's a peach, isn't she? Oh well, she'll get hers. And Jessie...well, she gets a special visit.