Author's Note: This chapter's by Maureen Epps a.k.a. Rain Ocampo. Please review!
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Chapter 2: Earshot
"So tell me Miss Epps...what is your life like?..." the school conseler despised of this girl. The hate was written all over her face. Mrs Dubonnet was a tan woman, with long shoulder length blonde hair in curls. She had a small barrette holding back the right side of her hair. Her emerald eyes sparkled in the sunlight, and her nails were a bright pink. She wore tight polyester suits in purple, sky blue, and white.
"My life?" Desarae smirked, the kind of smirk you know someone who was prepared to tell the truth would do. She tipped her cigarette, leaning back in her chair, placing her combat boots ontop of Mrs Dubonnet's desk.
"Put it out." the woman instructed, pointing to the cigarette.
"Yeah, sure..." Dizzy smiled, sucking back the deep smoke that filled her lungs, and took the cigarette, and crushed it onto the woman's desk.
"Not that way..." Mrs. Dubonnet looked annoyed now.
"Oops, my bad." Dizzy smiled.
"Anyway...let's take a look at your report card if you can't tell me about your life..." she instructed, pulling out Desarae's Perminate Record.
"Oh, I never said I couldn't tell you about my life..." Dizzy replied.
"Feet off the desk." Mrs. Dubonnet growled.
"Yes sir!" Dizzy laughed.
"Excuse me?!" Mrs. Dubonnet's face was bright red.
"Excuse me!" Dizzy laughed.
"Ma'am." she corrected herself.
"That's better." Mrs. Dubonnet smirked.
"So...if you'd like to tell me about yourself, please do." she leaned back in her chair, interlacing her fingers together, and smiled widely at the girl. A false smile.
With her New York accent, Dizzy leaned forward, taking her feet off of the desk.
"You really want to know?" she asked, speaking directly to her.
"Yes Desarae...I do..." Mrs. Dubonnet leaned further back in her seat, away from the girl.
"All right then..." Dizzy smiled sweetly.
"What's there to know? I was brought up here, in good old Manhattan...I'm adopted...I smoke." she said indicating her pack of cigarettes.
"I'm going to have to discard those, Desarae." Mrs Dubonnet held out her hand.
"Of course, of course." Dizzy said with a rebel smirk.
Annoyed. Mrs. Dubonnet got up from her seat.
"Desarae, I don't think you get this. But I'm here to help you. Now whether you like it or not, your aunt has instructed me to TRY and help you..." she walked over gracefully towards Dizzy, holding out her hand. In which she got the box of cigs from Diz.
"Thank you." Mrs. Dubonnet smiled.
"You're quite welcome, toots." Dizzy smiled back.
"It's Mrs. Dubonnet." she instructed, walking back over to her desk, and taking a seat.
"Whatever." Dizzy said, snapping her gum inside her mouth.
"You can go now, Desarae." she sighed, placing a mountain of papers to the right, so she had a better view of the girl.
"Of course." Dizzy smiled, got up from her seat, and took out her gum with her index finger, sticking it under Mrs. Dubonnet's desk, and grabbed her backpack, heading out of the room, the door slammed shut.
"Ungrateful bitch...daughter of a God damn ship salvager..." she muttered once the girl was gone, and took out a cigarette from Diz's once-had pack, placing it to her lips, she fiddled around in the already-open drawer, looking for a lighter.
"Ah ha." she smiled to herself, and lit it up, taking it between her thumb and forefinger, gazing down at Dizzy's file.
"Ah, she's going to be trouble..." she sighed, shaking her head.
----
"Well, you're certainly off to a good start." Maureen indicated the phone chord wrapped around her forefinger.
"You're in big trouble..." she growled.
"Oh of course not you Mrs. Dubonnet!" Maureen laughed, a fake laugh, one that you would hear at tea parties.
"You're so lame, mother." Dizzy flipped her off, and heading down the hallway into her room.
"Excuse me while I go discipline my daughter..." Maureen cringed, hanging up the phone.
"But.." was Mrs. Dubonnet's last words before she was disconnected from the phone line of the Epps residence.
Maureen headed down the hallway, nearly tripping over Dizzy's combat boots, one to the left, one in the middle of the hallway, clothes were thrown all over the floor, and the door to her room was closed, Slipknot music blasting away, a 'Do not disturb' sign hung on the white wooden door.
Maureen sighed, rolling her eyes, and prepared herself, slowly reaching out for the knob and turned it.
"Turn that damn shit off!" she growled, bending down to pick up one of Dizzy's dirty shirts on the floor.
"I'm all ears." Dizzy said, switching off the radio.
"Thank you." Maureen smiled, flipping the lid of the hamper open, and threw the shirt inside.
"This room is a mess." she said, indicating all the clothes, shoes, and papers surrounding the white carpet.
"It's the way I like it." Dizzy replied, nodding her head.
"Well it's not the way I like it." Maureen shuddered at the thought of Dizzy having total control over the household.
"I just was on the phone with the principal of Manchester Prep, and she is NOT amused Desarae..." Maureen began to walk over to her daughter, sitting down backwards on a chair, she laid her arms out ontop of the chair, sighing, as she rested her chin on her arms.
"Yeah, so?" Dizzy asked, throwing up a Yo-yo into the air.
"So?!" Maureen shot a look of disappointment to her.
"I'm not amused either!" she growled.
"Don't yell at me." Dizzy said calmly.
"Look. Just clean your room, and we'll talk..." Maureen said, getting up from her seat, and placing the chair back to where it originally was.
"Fine." Dizzy replied.
"Thank you." Maureen smiled.
"Tomorrow." Dizzy smirked.
Maureen's smile immediately dropped. She didn't know why she honestly put up with it...it had seemed like such a good idea, to adopt a child...but little did she know how much stress it would give her.
"Look, we're not getting into this." Maureen said, walking out of the room, and closing the door quietly.
Sure enough, as soon as the door shut, on went the CD player.
---
Maureen was turning thirty in a matter of three days. She wanted everything to be as perfect as possible. But she knew it wouldn't be perfect...nothing was perfect. Nothing lasted. If it was going to be perfect, Dodge would be at her birthday. Murphy would be there, Greer, Santos, Munder, everyone would be there.
But no...she was going to be alone. But she wasn't alone, or was she? She had her sister Maisie, and her daughter...but was that enough? That was the thing with Epps, you could never satisfy her. She always wanted more.
"Happy birthday, Epps..." she muttered to herself, laying the picture frame of her mother, flat on the dresser.
Slowly, she undid the buttons to her sweater, and threw it off, letting it land on one of the bed posts, as she dressed in her nightgown.
She'd give anything to see them again...
---
Dizzy sighed.
"Can you believe she wants me to do that?" Dizzy laughed.
"She asked you to actually quit smoking?" the voice on the other line sounded incoherent, Diz could hardly understand her babbling.
"No. She just told me not to smoke in her presence." Dizzy replied.
"Oh."
---
Maureen gazed in the mirror. It was Spring, the sunlight shined into the room through the window, the dusty white curtains hung from their pole, dragging to the floor. Sighing, she placed a comb through her knotty curly dark brown hair, slowly dragging it down. With a wince of pain, some of her hair came out onto the comb.
"Honey?" a male voice was heard, it dominated the household.
"Huh?" Maureen asked, listening for where the voice was coming from...why did it sound so familiar?
"Hon?" it asked again, a shadow drawing nearer.
"What?" Maureen asked, turning her head to see who it was.
"Where's the corn muffin mix?"
"The wha?" Maureen got up from her seat, clutching her bathrobe tightly around herself, she peered from the doorway to see who it was.
"Why would you want corn muffins?" she asked, suddenly staring into icy blue eyes.
"To make muffins..." Jack Ferriman rolled his eyes, wrapping his arms around her thin waist, and kissed her sweet lips.
"Like honey..." he smiled.
"Mmmm..." Maureen giggled, sort of girlie. Which wasn't normal for her.
"Where's Desarae?" she asked.
"Who?" Jack asked, raising a brunette eyebrow.
"Our daughter..." Maureen also raised an eyebrow.
"Daughter?" Jack took a step back, retreating his hands to his side.
"Uh huh..." Maureen looked surprised.
"Honey, we don't have a daughter..." he replied.
"But...I swore we..." Maureen began, but he took a step forward, putting a finger to her lips.
"Can you see if you can find the muffin mix?" Jack asked impatiently, almost whining like a child.
Maureen sighed.
"Of course..." she slowly walked forward, down the hallway, and towards the kitchen.
"Why did you think we had a daughter?" Jack asked, loosening his tie.
"Since when do you wear a tie?" Maureen asked, confused.
"Since I've been working..." Jack smiled.
He still looked normal, dusty brown hair, deep icy blue eyes, green cotton collared shirt, green corduroy pants with brown shoes. Yep, he was still all there. But....a tie?
"Where do you work again? You must excuse me, I feel rather ditzy today..." Maureen smiled sweetly.
"I'm a soul collector, remember?" Jack asked, looking through the cabinet for the muffin mix.
"Ah." Maureen raised an eyebrow, looking confused. And now lines of worry could be seen on her face.
"So you're thirty today..." Jack smirked.
"Uh huh." Maureen smiled, proud of her age.
"Still young and beautiful." he smiled.
Maureen laughed, as he drew her into a kiss again.
"But why must you wear a tie to work?" Maureen asked, breaking lose of the kiss.
"Well, I want to look presentable, right?" he asked, getting slightly impatient now.
"Right..." Maureen said, reaching up onto the shelf for the corn muffin mix.
"All right then." Jack smiled a fake smile now, he was starting to lose it. He had quite a temper...
"You know Maureen, it never occurred to me why I didn't kill you when I had the chance...or rather I still have the chance. And you know what? When you grow old...I'll be there...but I'll still be twenty-three and you'll be eighty-three. No longer having your youth, or beauty, you'll rot in the ground, and I'll drag you to hell with me"
"That's nice dear." Maureen said, emptying the muffin box of it's mix.
"DAMN IT WOMAN, I WANT MY CORN MUFFINS!" Jack shouted.
"I'm making them as fast as I can!" she growled, shoving the drawer closed, as she got the spoon.
The air began to get a bit misty, and Maureen found herself wide awake in her bed, screaming at the top of her lungs.
"FUCKING HELL, NO!" she yelled.
---
A/N: Do you like, do you not like, do you absolutely hate it and want to throw a bar of butter at it? Review!
-----------
Chapter 2: Earshot
"So tell me Miss Epps...what is your life like?..." the school conseler despised of this girl. The hate was written all over her face. Mrs Dubonnet was a tan woman, with long shoulder length blonde hair in curls. She had a small barrette holding back the right side of her hair. Her emerald eyes sparkled in the sunlight, and her nails were a bright pink. She wore tight polyester suits in purple, sky blue, and white.
"My life?" Desarae smirked, the kind of smirk you know someone who was prepared to tell the truth would do. She tipped her cigarette, leaning back in her chair, placing her combat boots ontop of Mrs Dubonnet's desk.
"Put it out." the woman instructed, pointing to the cigarette.
"Yeah, sure..." Dizzy smiled, sucking back the deep smoke that filled her lungs, and took the cigarette, and crushed it onto the woman's desk.
"Not that way..." Mrs. Dubonnet looked annoyed now.
"Oops, my bad." Dizzy smiled.
"Anyway...let's take a look at your report card if you can't tell me about your life..." she instructed, pulling out Desarae's Perminate Record.
"Oh, I never said I couldn't tell you about my life..." Dizzy replied.
"Feet off the desk." Mrs. Dubonnet growled.
"Yes sir!" Dizzy laughed.
"Excuse me?!" Mrs. Dubonnet's face was bright red.
"Excuse me!" Dizzy laughed.
"Ma'am." she corrected herself.
"That's better." Mrs. Dubonnet smirked.
"So...if you'd like to tell me about yourself, please do." she leaned back in her chair, interlacing her fingers together, and smiled widely at the girl. A false smile.
With her New York accent, Dizzy leaned forward, taking her feet off of the desk.
"You really want to know?" she asked, speaking directly to her.
"Yes Desarae...I do..." Mrs. Dubonnet leaned further back in her seat, away from the girl.
"All right then..." Dizzy smiled sweetly.
"What's there to know? I was brought up here, in good old Manhattan...I'm adopted...I smoke." she said indicating her pack of cigarettes.
"I'm going to have to discard those, Desarae." Mrs Dubonnet held out her hand.
"Of course, of course." Dizzy said with a rebel smirk.
Annoyed. Mrs. Dubonnet got up from her seat.
"Desarae, I don't think you get this. But I'm here to help you. Now whether you like it or not, your aunt has instructed me to TRY and help you..." she walked over gracefully towards Dizzy, holding out her hand. In which she got the box of cigs from Diz.
"Thank you." Mrs. Dubonnet smiled.
"You're quite welcome, toots." Dizzy smiled back.
"It's Mrs. Dubonnet." she instructed, walking back over to her desk, and taking a seat.
"Whatever." Dizzy said, snapping her gum inside her mouth.
"You can go now, Desarae." she sighed, placing a mountain of papers to the right, so she had a better view of the girl.
"Of course." Dizzy smiled, got up from her seat, and took out her gum with her index finger, sticking it under Mrs. Dubonnet's desk, and grabbed her backpack, heading out of the room, the door slammed shut.
"Ungrateful bitch...daughter of a God damn ship salvager..." she muttered once the girl was gone, and took out a cigarette from Diz's once-had pack, placing it to her lips, she fiddled around in the already-open drawer, looking for a lighter.
"Ah ha." she smiled to herself, and lit it up, taking it between her thumb and forefinger, gazing down at Dizzy's file.
"Ah, she's going to be trouble..." she sighed, shaking her head.
----
"Well, you're certainly off to a good start." Maureen indicated the phone chord wrapped around her forefinger.
"You're in big trouble..." she growled.
"Oh of course not you Mrs. Dubonnet!" Maureen laughed, a fake laugh, one that you would hear at tea parties.
"You're so lame, mother." Dizzy flipped her off, and heading down the hallway into her room.
"Excuse me while I go discipline my daughter..." Maureen cringed, hanging up the phone.
"But.." was Mrs. Dubonnet's last words before she was disconnected from the phone line of the Epps residence.
Maureen headed down the hallway, nearly tripping over Dizzy's combat boots, one to the left, one in the middle of the hallway, clothes were thrown all over the floor, and the door to her room was closed, Slipknot music blasting away, a 'Do not disturb' sign hung on the white wooden door.
Maureen sighed, rolling her eyes, and prepared herself, slowly reaching out for the knob and turned it.
"Turn that damn shit off!" she growled, bending down to pick up one of Dizzy's dirty shirts on the floor.
"I'm all ears." Dizzy said, switching off the radio.
"Thank you." Maureen smiled, flipping the lid of the hamper open, and threw the shirt inside.
"This room is a mess." she said, indicating all the clothes, shoes, and papers surrounding the white carpet.
"It's the way I like it." Dizzy replied, nodding her head.
"Well it's not the way I like it." Maureen shuddered at the thought of Dizzy having total control over the household.
"I just was on the phone with the principal of Manchester Prep, and she is NOT amused Desarae..." Maureen began to walk over to her daughter, sitting down backwards on a chair, she laid her arms out ontop of the chair, sighing, as she rested her chin on her arms.
"Yeah, so?" Dizzy asked, throwing up a Yo-yo into the air.
"So?!" Maureen shot a look of disappointment to her.
"I'm not amused either!" she growled.
"Don't yell at me." Dizzy said calmly.
"Look. Just clean your room, and we'll talk..." Maureen said, getting up from her seat, and placing the chair back to where it originally was.
"Fine." Dizzy replied.
"Thank you." Maureen smiled.
"Tomorrow." Dizzy smirked.
Maureen's smile immediately dropped. She didn't know why she honestly put up with it...it had seemed like such a good idea, to adopt a child...but little did she know how much stress it would give her.
"Look, we're not getting into this." Maureen said, walking out of the room, and closing the door quietly.
Sure enough, as soon as the door shut, on went the CD player.
---
Maureen was turning thirty in a matter of three days. She wanted everything to be as perfect as possible. But she knew it wouldn't be perfect...nothing was perfect. Nothing lasted. If it was going to be perfect, Dodge would be at her birthday. Murphy would be there, Greer, Santos, Munder, everyone would be there.
But no...she was going to be alone. But she wasn't alone, or was she? She had her sister Maisie, and her daughter...but was that enough? That was the thing with Epps, you could never satisfy her. She always wanted more.
"Happy birthday, Epps..." she muttered to herself, laying the picture frame of her mother, flat on the dresser.
Slowly, she undid the buttons to her sweater, and threw it off, letting it land on one of the bed posts, as she dressed in her nightgown.
She'd give anything to see them again...
---
Dizzy sighed.
"Can you believe she wants me to do that?" Dizzy laughed.
"She asked you to actually quit smoking?" the voice on the other line sounded incoherent, Diz could hardly understand her babbling.
"No. She just told me not to smoke in her presence." Dizzy replied.
"Oh."
---
Maureen gazed in the mirror. It was Spring, the sunlight shined into the room through the window, the dusty white curtains hung from their pole, dragging to the floor. Sighing, she placed a comb through her knotty curly dark brown hair, slowly dragging it down. With a wince of pain, some of her hair came out onto the comb.
"Honey?" a male voice was heard, it dominated the household.
"Huh?" Maureen asked, listening for where the voice was coming from...why did it sound so familiar?
"Hon?" it asked again, a shadow drawing nearer.
"What?" Maureen asked, turning her head to see who it was.
"Where's the corn muffin mix?"
"The wha?" Maureen got up from her seat, clutching her bathrobe tightly around herself, she peered from the doorway to see who it was.
"Why would you want corn muffins?" she asked, suddenly staring into icy blue eyes.
"To make muffins..." Jack Ferriman rolled his eyes, wrapping his arms around her thin waist, and kissed her sweet lips.
"Like honey..." he smiled.
"Mmmm..." Maureen giggled, sort of girlie. Which wasn't normal for her.
"Where's Desarae?" she asked.
"Who?" Jack asked, raising a brunette eyebrow.
"Our daughter..." Maureen also raised an eyebrow.
"Daughter?" Jack took a step back, retreating his hands to his side.
"Uh huh..." Maureen looked surprised.
"Honey, we don't have a daughter..." he replied.
"But...I swore we..." Maureen began, but he took a step forward, putting a finger to her lips.
"Can you see if you can find the muffin mix?" Jack asked impatiently, almost whining like a child.
Maureen sighed.
"Of course..." she slowly walked forward, down the hallway, and towards the kitchen.
"Why did you think we had a daughter?" Jack asked, loosening his tie.
"Since when do you wear a tie?" Maureen asked, confused.
"Since I've been working..." Jack smiled.
He still looked normal, dusty brown hair, deep icy blue eyes, green cotton collared shirt, green corduroy pants with brown shoes. Yep, he was still all there. But....a tie?
"Where do you work again? You must excuse me, I feel rather ditzy today..." Maureen smiled sweetly.
"I'm a soul collector, remember?" Jack asked, looking through the cabinet for the muffin mix.
"Ah." Maureen raised an eyebrow, looking confused. And now lines of worry could be seen on her face.
"So you're thirty today..." Jack smirked.
"Uh huh." Maureen smiled, proud of her age.
"Still young and beautiful." he smiled.
Maureen laughed, as he drew her into a kiss again.
"But why must you wear a tie to work?" Maureen asked, breaking lose of the kiss.
"Well, I want to look presentable, right?" he asked, getting slightly impatient now.
"Right..." Maureen said, reaching up onto the shelf for the corn muffin mix.
"All right then." Jack smiled a fake smile now, he was starting to lose it. He had quite a temper...
"You know Maureen, it never occurred to me why I didn't kill you when I had the chance...or rather I still have the chance. And you know what? When you grow old...I'll be there...but I'll still be twenty-three and you'll be eighty-three. No longer having your youth, or beauty, you'll rot in the ground, and I'll drag you to hell with me"
"That's nice dear." Maureen said, emptying the muffin box of it's mix.
"DAMN IT WOMAN, I WANT MY CORN MUFFINS!" Jack shouted.
"I'm making them as fast as I can!" she growled, shoving the drawer closed, as she got the spoon.
The air began to get a bit misty, and Maureen found herself wide awake in her bed, screaming at the top of her lungs.
"FUCKING HELL, NO!" she yelled.
---
A/N: Do you like, do you not like, do you absolutely hate it and want to throw a bar of butter at it? Review!