Chapter 20
Trip walked out to the terrace where Jessica and Alex were talking seriously. He was excited, and he ignored their mood completely. "I found something!" he announced. They both looked at him and smiled excitedly.
"What did you find?" Alex asked.
"Come to the living room, and I'll let you know," he said, leaving to call Jen.
Alex and Jessica walked towards the living room, still talking about whatever it was they had been talking about. Probably Wes, Trip thought.
Meanwhile, Trip knocked on Jen's door. She didn't answer, so he assumed she was asleep. Knowing she would kill them all with her bare hands if they didn't call her for that meeting, he opened the door, willing to wake her up.
But Jen wasn't asleep. She was crying. She looked at the door with her red eyes and seemed to accept it was pointless to pretend she hadn't been crying, because she just sat on the bed, wrapping her arms around her knees.
"Are you ok?" Trip asked, not really knowing what to say.
"Like a million bucks," she answered bitterly.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"My husband thinks I'm still in love with Wes, he mistrusts me and, as if it wasn't enough, I tried to read his mind, and he was talking with Jessica about divorce!" She said the last words with pain and began crying again. This time, not caring about anything, she began wailing in despair. "What am I going to do if he divorces me? What do I do with all this love? What do I do with myself?!" she asked.
"Jen, I know Alex has been a little jealous of the attention Wes has been getting, and I know you've had some fights, but I don't think he's going to divorce you," he said, trying to calm her down, and failing miserably.
"But what if he does?! What if he leaves me? He doesn't trust me anymore and he always told me he believed a marriage without trust can never work." She sounded really desperate and drowned in pain and fear. "I guess I'll have to go back to sleep," she whispered, almost guiltily.
"No!" Trip said forcefully. "You don't have to; if you want to gain his trust back, falling asleep is not the way!"
"What if I can't?" she asked.
"Don't be so negative!" he told her off, but she wasn't listening to him anymore.
"I never gave him children, never did. I don't think I ever gave him a reason to doubt me, I don't think he should doubt me, I love him, but why doesn't he believe me? What did I do wrong?" She kept asking all those questions in a hushed voice, her fingertips on her lower lip, pinching it softly, and then she would run a hand down her hair, only to return to the first position of pinching her lower lip.
Trip knew the only way to get her out of that crisis was to talk about something else. "I found something that can help us narrow down the search," he commented. She looked at him as if she didn't understand what he had just said. "Wes, he's been kidnapped, remember, and I found a way to narrow down the search field."
"Oh," she said at last. "That's good." She seemed to have gone temporarily insane.
"I'll tell you what," Trip began. "I'll go and tell the others, before they start wondering what's going on, and when you feel better you can come and ask me, is that okay?"
"Sure," she answered distractedly. "Perhaps a romantic evening. . ." she said; her face lighting up and she began to talk to herself about how good an idea that was.
Trip left the bedroom and walked down to the dining room. They were all waiting for him there. Alex frowned when he arrived on his own. "Where's Jen?" he asked.
Trip seemed nervous. "She's not feeling very well, I'll fill her in later," he said.
Alex got to his feet. "I'll go and see what's wrong with her," he announced.
"NO!" Trip yelled suddenly. Alex looked at him, puzzled. "I mean, this is really important, she just has a headache." He tried to fix his mistake. He licked his lips nervously, and Alex knew he was lying.
"You can fill us both in later," he told him and walked out of the room.
"What did you discover, Trip?" Jessica asked.
"I don't know if you will understand, Jessica," he warned. "But I'll try to make it as clear as possible, if you have any questions, just ask."
*************************
Alex climbed the stairs and walked to the bedroom he and Jen were using. He was almost at the door when it opened. Jen was coming out of the bedroom, her eyes and nose red, as if she had been crying. She saw him and hesitated for a second before smiling at him timidly. Warned by the obvious signs of crying, he returned her smile, and moved forward to wrap his arm around her shoulders.
"Are you okay?" he asked sweetly, caressing her cheek, still damp with her tears.
"No," she admitted. "I'm hurt and I'm scared. I fear my husband might divorce me, and it just terrifies me. And I'm hurt because he doesn't trust me, but the big problem here is that if he doesn't trust me, then I can't make him believe that I love him, can I?"
Alex couldn't find words for a couple of seconds. Then he turned to her and looked at her in the eye. "I had a chat with Jessica not too long ago," he began.
"I know, you were talking about divorce," she said.
"In the beginning, yes. But then, Jessica found out she's pregnant, and she decided to give Wes another chance, for their child. You are not pregnant, so there is no child forcing me to give you another chance." He stopped at the pained expression on her face.
"No. . ." she whimpered. Then she jumped and wrapped her arms around him as tightly as she could. "Please don't leave me!" she begged. She was truly desperate.
It reminded Alex of those times when she had just discovered her powers and thought he didn't love her. He wrapped his arms tightly around her, returning her embrace completely. Not just the physical contact, but the love, the energy and the plea as well. "Jen calm down," he whispered directly into her ear. "I'm not going to divorce you," he assured her.
"You're not?" she asked.
"Of course I'm not!" he said. "I admit I did think about the possibility of this marriage not working, now that I was feeling so jealous and everything, but I decided not to. That's what I was trying to tell you, you are not pregnant and nothing is forcing me to give you a second chance. I chose to do so. But Jessica said these words, while she was trying to accept the fact she won't divorce Wes. She said: 'I guess trust is about jumping off a cliff, and knowing you'll fall right. I don't know for sure Wesley loves me, but I will never find out if I don't try. So I'm going to try, with all of my heart, and I'm forcing myself to believe in him, assuming he's telling the truth in all ways. I'm going to because I have to, for me and for my child.' Well, I don't have to assume you are telling the truth in all ways, but I choose to do so. I choose to give you a chance, to love you no matter what, because we are together in the good and in the bad and we met so casually I can't believe anything but that we were meant to be together, so I won't throw the happiest thing I have away for a stupid doubt. You love me? That's wonderful! You love Wesley? I'm honored you are letting me love you, and it's great too, pretending you love me back. At least it hurts less than being alone, and I don't want to hurt you, or myself, ever again."
She looked at him, and then, as a form of answer, she just kissed him deeply. He returned the kiss as completely as he had returned the embrace. She caressed his hair and he caressed her cheek as they looked into each other's eyes for a few seconds, stabilizing their love. Then he smiled and hugged her tightly, kissing the side of her head.
"Now, stop acting so silly, and let's find that kidnapped man, his wife has great news for him, and I'm sure he'd love to come home," he told her.
"Let's find him," she said. "The sooner we find him, the sooner we can go back home too."
"Trip had news for us, let's see what it is," he said and lead the way back to the dinning room.
The grinning faces Alex had left behind were now grim. "What's wrong?" he asked, concerned, Jessica jumped to her feet and threw herself into Alex's arms. He hugged her. Jen raised her eyebrow with a playful interest and he just shook his head slightly.
"She's going to get her!" Jessica wailed, breaking away from Alex and throwing herself over to Jen, who caught her and hugged her the best she could.
"Who's going to get who?" Alex asked Trip.
"Buda found traces of mutant DNA on the north side of the city. It's the same mutant that attacked Jessica and Wes in the hospital," Trip answered.
"She's going to get Phine!" Jessica predicted worriedly.
"Not if we can help it," Jen assured her, looking directly into her eyes. "Jessica, Listen to me. We are going to rescue your husband, and we are going to save your sister, I promise." Jessica looked at her, puzzled. "I make the commitment to you: I'll save them both," she promised. "Now, people, what are we waiting for?" she told her teammates. "Move!"
*************************************
Josephine Smith, now Mrs. Kevin Simmons, was sitting on a log in the corral, watching over a cow that was sick. She had just had her calf, and after the birth she had been getting thinner and weaker. Now she was lying on her side, trying hard to breathe.
"Don't force me to sacrifice you, Marguerite," she told the cow in a friendly voice, caressing the animal's side.
"Mommy!" she heard one of her beautiful five-year-olds yell as he ran to her. She got up and out of the corral, opening her arms to her running gift from heaven.
"Come here!" she said as she lifted him from the ground and hugged him tightly, kissing his cheek lovingly.
"How is Marguerite doing?" the toddler asked.
"She's not doing very well," the mother admitted. "Leave her alone for a couple of days, to see if she gets so bored and gets so much desire to play again she starts feeling better, okay?" she suggested.
"Ok," the boy said. "But won't she feel lonely?"
"That's the point, she'll miss you guys so much she'll get better a lot faster! You can take care of her baby meanwhile!"
"Ok, we'll take care of the puppy," the boy said as his mother put him on the floor.
"Give me one kiss and go wash yourself, okay?" The boy kissed her on the cheek and ran to the house. Josephine followed him, walking calmly. She saw her husband standing in front of the house, smiling at her. She smiled back.
"So, how was town?" she asked with a yell from afar.
"Small and boring as always," he answered. She reached him and they kissed tenderly, his beard itchy on her face.
"I swear, one of this days I'm going to shave you in your sleep," she promised, he chuckled.
"I like your hair too," he commented.
Unlike her twin sister, Josephine had short hair that grew in reddish orange spikes all around her head. The children had inherited her spiky hair, but not the color, and they both thanked God for that.
"What are we having for lunch?" Kevin asked, opening the door of the house.
"Jessica is coming," Josephine said naturally.
"Did she call?" the man asked seriously. Josephine could forget that he was twenty years older than she was most of the time, but sometimes, it just showed so plainly, especially when it was related to her family.
"No, but I can tell," she answered. In previous times she had felt Jessica was going to pay her a visit and she had never missed, the few times Jessica had visited her. Kevin let out an angry, disapproving sound, but said nothing. He just entered the house.
Josephine stayed outside for a few seconds. Only as she was about to enter the house, did she see two black SUV's passing the farm's fence. She watched, but didn't walk towards them as they pulled up. She had the opposite impulse, the impulse to grab her children and run away. It scared her at first, but then it annoyed her.
Jessica had brought trouble and bad news to her farm. Just like every time she visited.
To be continued.
Trip walked out to the terrace where Jessica and Alex were talking seriously. He was excited, and he ignored their mood completely. "I found something!" he announced. They both looked at him and smiled excitedly.
"What did you find?" Alex asked.
"Come to the living room, and I'll let you know," he said, leaving to call Jen.
Alex and Jessica walked towards the living room, still talking about whatever it was they had been talking about. Probably Wes, Trip thought.
Meanwhile, Trip knocked on Jen's door. She didn't answer, so he assumed she was asleep. Knowing she would kill them all with her bare hands if they didn't call her for that meeting, he opened the door, willing to wake her up.
But Jen wasn't asleep. She was crying. She looked at the door with her red eyes and seemed to accept it was pointless to pretend she hadn't been crying, because she just sat on the bed, wrapping her arms around her knees.
"Are you ok?" Trip asked, not really knowing what to say.
"Like a million bucks," she answered bitterly.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"My husband thinks I'm still in love with Wes, he mistrusts me and, as if it wasn't enough, I tried to read his mind, and he was talking with Jessica about divorce!" She said the last words with pain and began crying again. This time, not caring about anything, she began wailing in despair. "What am I going to do if he divorces me? What do I do with all this love? What do I do with myself?!" she asked.
"Jen, I know Alex has been a little jealous of the attention Wes has been getting, and I know you've had some fights, but I don't think he's going to divorce you," he said, trying to calm her down, and failing miserably.
"But what if he does?! What if he leaves me? He doesn't trust me anymore and he always told me he believed a marriage without trust can never work." She sounded really desperate and drowned in pain and fear. "I guess I'll have to go back to sleep," she whispered, almost guiltily.
"No!" Trip said forcefully. "You don't have to; if you want to gain his trust back, falling asleep is not the way!"
"What if I can't?" she asked.
"Don't be so negative!" he told her off, but she wasn't listening to him anymore.
"I never gave him children, never did. I don't think I ever gave him a reason to doubt me, I don't think he should doubt me, I love him, but why doesn't he believe me? What did I do wrong?" She kept asking all those questions in a hushed voice, her fingertips on her lower lip, pinching it softly, and then she would run a hand down her hair, only to return to the first position of pinching her lower lip.
Trip knew the only way to get her out of that crisis was to talk about something else. "I found something that can help us narrow down the search," he commented. She looked at him as if she didn't understand what he had just said. "Wes, he's been kidnapped, remember, and I found a way to narrow down the search field."
"Oh," she said at last. "That's good." She seemed to have gone temporarily insane.
"I'll tell you what," Trip began. "I'll go and tell the others, before they start wondering what's going on, and when you feel better you can come and ask me, is that okay?"
"Sure," she answered distractedly. "Perhaps a romantic evening. . ." she said; her face lighting up and she began to talk to herself about how good an idea that was.
Trip left the bedroom and walked down to the dining room. They were all waiting for him there. Alex frowned when he arrived on his own. "Where's Jen?" he asked.
Trip seemed nervous. "She's not feeling very well, I'll fill her in later," he said.
Alex got to his feet. "I'll go and see what's wrong with her," he announced.
"NO!" Trip yelled suddenly. Alex looked at him, puzzled. "I mean, this is really important, she just has a headache." He tried to fix his mistake. He licked his lips nervously, and Alex knew he was lying.
"You can fill us both in later," he told him and walked out of the room.
"What did you discover, Trip?" Jessica asked.
"I don't know if you will understand, Jessica," he warned. "But I'll try to make it as clear as possible, if you have any questions, just ask."
*************************
Alex climbed the stairs and walked to the bedroom he and Jen were using. He was almost at the door when it opened. Jen was coming out of the bedroom, her eyes and nose red, as if she had been crying. She saw him and hesitated for a second before smiling at him timidly. Warned by the obvious signs of crying, he returned her smile, and moved forward to wrap his arm around her shoulders.
"Are you okay?" he asked sweetly, caressing her cheek, still damp with her tears.
"No," she admitted. "I'm hurt and I'm scared. I fear my husband might divorce me, and it just terrifies me. And I'm hurt because he doesn't trust me, but the big problem here is that if he doesn't trust me, then I can't make him believe that I love him, can I?"
Alex couldn't find words for a couple of seconds. Then he turned to her and looked at her in the eye. "I had a chat with Jessica not too long ago," he began.
"I know, you were talking about divorce," she said.
"In the beginning, yes. But then, Jessica found out she's pregnant, and she decided to give Wes another chance, for their child. You are not pregnant, so there is no child forcing me to give you another chance." He stopped at the pained expression on her face.
"No. . ." she whimpered. Then she jumped and wrapped her arms around him as tightly as she could. "Please don't leave me!" she begged. She was truly desperate.
It reminded Alex of those times when she had just discovered her powers and thought he didn't love her. He wrapped his arms tightly around her, returning her embrace completely. Not just the physical contact, but the love, the energy and the plea as well. "Jen calm down," he whispered directly into her ear. "I'm not going to divorce you," he assured her.
"You're not?" she asked.
"Of course I'm not!" he said. "I admit I did think about the possibility of this marriage not working, now that I was feeling so jealous and everything, but I decided not to. That's what I was trying to tell you, you are not pregnant and nothing is forcing me to give you a second chance. I chose to do so. But Jessica said these words, while she was trying to accept the fact she won't divorce Wes. She said: 'I guess trust is about jumping off a cliff, and knowing you'll fall right. I don't know for sure Wesley loves me, but I will never find out if I don't try. So I'm going to try, with all of my heart, and I'm forcing myself to believe in him, assuming he's telling the truth in all ways. I'm going to because I have to, for me and for my child.' Well, I don't have to assume you are telling the truth in all ways, but I choose to do so. I choose to give you a chance, to love you no matter what, because we are together in the good and in the bad and we met so casually I can't believe anything but that we were meant to be together, so I won't throw the happiest thing I have away for a stupid doubt. You love me? That's wonderful! You love Wesley? I'm honored you are letting me love you, and it's great too, pretending you love me back. At least it hurts less than being alone, and I don't want to hurt you, or myself, ever again."
She looked at him, and then, as a form of answer, she just kissed him deeply. He returned the kiss as completely as he had returned the embrace. She caressed his hair and he caressed her cheek as they looked into each other's eyes for a few seconds, stabilizing their love. Then he smiled and hugged her tightly, kissing the side of her head.
"Now, stop acting so silly, and let's find that kidnapped man, his wife has great news for him, and I'm sure he'd love to come home," he told her.
"Let's find him," she said. "The sooner we find him, the sooner we can go back home too."
"Trip had news for us, let's see what it is," he said and lead the way back to the dinning room.
The grinning faces Alex had left behind were now grim. "What's wrong?" he asked, concerned, Jessica jumped to her feet and threw herself into Alex's arms. He hugged her. Jen raised her eyebrow with a playful interest and he just shook his head slightly.
"She's going to get her!" Jessica wailed, breaking away from Alex and throwing herself over to Jen, who caught her and hugged her the best she could.
"Who's going to get who?" Alex asked Trip.
"Buda found traces of mutant DNA on the north side of the city. It's the same mutant that attacked Jessica and Wes in the hospital," Trip answered.
"She's going to get Phine!" Jessica predicted worriedly.
"Not if we can help it," Jen assured her, looking directly into her eyes. "Jessica, Listen to me. We are going to rescue your husband, and we are going to save your sister, I promise." Jessica looked at her, puzzled. "I make the commitment to you: I'll save them both," she promised. "Now, people, what are we waiting for?" she told her teammates. "Move!"
*************************************
Josephine Smith, now Mrs. Kevin Simmons, was sitting on a log in the corral, watching over a cow that was sick. She had just had her calf, and after the birth she had been getting thinner and weaker. Now she was lying on her side, trying hard to breathe.
"Don't force me to sacrifice you, Marguerite," she told the cow in a friendly voice, caressing the animal's side.
"Mommy!" she heard one of her beautiful five-year-olds yell as he ran to her. She got up and out of the corral, opening her arms to her running gift from heaven.
"Come here!" she said as she lifted him from the ground and hugged him tightly, kissing his cheek lovingly.
"How is Marguerite doing?" the toddler asked.
"She's not doing very well," the mother admitted. "Leave her alone for a couple of days, to see if she gets so bored and gets so much desire to play again she starts feeling better, okay?" she suggested.
"Ok," the boy said. "But won't she feel lonely?"
"That's the point, she'll miss you guys so much she'll get better a lot faster! You can take care of her baby meanwhile!"
"Ok, we'll take care of the puppy," the boy said as his mother put him on the floor.
"Give me one kiss and go wash yourself, okay?" The boy kissed her on the cheek and ran to the house. Josephine followed him, walking calmly. She saw her husband standing in front of the house, smiling at her. She smiled back.
"So, how was town?" she asked with a yell from afar.
"Small and boring as always," he answered. She reached him and they kissed tenderly, his beard itchy on her face.
"I swear, one of this days I'm going to shave you in your sleep," she promised, he chuckled.
"I like your hair too," he commented.
Unlike her twin sister, Josephine had short hair that grew in reddish orange spikes all around her head. The children had inherited her spiky hair, but not the color, and they both thanked God for that.
"What are we having for lunch?" Kevin asked, opening the door of the house.
"Jessica is coming," Josephine said naturally.
"Did she call?" the man asked seriously. Josephine could forget that he was twenty years older than she was most of the time, but sometimes, it just showed so plainly, especially when it was related to her family.
"No, but I can tell," she answered. In previous times she had felt Jessica was going to pay her a visit and she had never missed, the few times Jessica had visited her. Kevin let out an angry, disapproving sound, but said nothing. He just entered the house.
Josephine stayed outside for a few seconds. Only as she was about to enter the house, did she see two black SUV's passing the farm's fence. She watched, but didn't walk towards them as they pulled up. She had the opposite impulse, the impulse to grab her children and run away. It scared her at first, but then it annoyed her.
Jessica had brought trouble and bad news to her farm. Just like every time she visited.
To be continued.
