"Asshole." Jesse narrowed her eyes and peered into the darkness, her hands held defensively on her hips. Water droplets crawled slowly over her skin, pooling at her feet. She seemed to care very little that she was without apparel, her fury stemmed from a much older slight.
"Nice t'see you're still so charmin', Jesse." Remy threw the towel at her and turned to wait in the living room for her. She followed him moments later, mostly dry, though it was obvious that she had missed much moisture in her haste. She had grabbed the clothes closest at hand and rushed to rail at him.
"Where the hell do you get off breaking into my apartment? Just because you can doesn't give you the right!" Jesse had emerged from her room to find him looking at pictures of her daughter scattered across the fireplace mantle. He set a silver framed picture back in its spot and turned to face her with icy contempt in his eyes. When he spoke, his voice was tight, soft, and controlled.
"An' jus' because we weren't goin' t'be together means you had da right t'take off wit my chile an' not tell me…" Jesse came up short, the blood draining from her face. She had actually been naïve enough to convince herself this day would never come. The wind taken out of her sails, she walked slowly to the couch and sat on the edge, her hands held nervously between her knees. Remy silently paced in front of the window overlooking the New York skyline. His thoughts were a jumble, his heart racing. She had not denied it; she simply sat there, looking pale and cornered. After what felt like an eternity, he turned back to her.
"What were you t'inking, Jesse? Was dis my punishment? I wasn' gonna be wit you, so you decide to leave wit'out tellin' me?" It did not add up, Jesse had never seemed to be that kind of person, vindictive, conniving, but there were few other explanations that made sense. Why deny a child both parents just because they were not married? Granted, Belle would have thrown the master of all hissy fits and his father would have wanted to drown him in the swamps, but he would have been there for his kid. Jesse had no right to keep him and Vivianne from each other.
"Remy, you were about to marry another woman. I knew you didn't love me, not the way I loved you." She said slowly, her voice small and sad. "You were fond of me, but I was just fun to you, a good friend with the fringe benefits of a good roll in the sack."
"What does dat have t'do wit anyt'ing? We weren't in love, we weren't gonna be married, so what? Doesn't change da fact dat she is my chile and you took her from me! I never promised you anyt'ing, Jesse." He was furious, pacing like a caged animal. She looked up at him, her eyes flashing.
" I went into that relationship with my eyes open. Don't think I was some simpering little brat waiting for you to grace me with your attention. Yes, I had hoped that you would fall in love with me in time, but I knew there were no guarantees. But when I found out I was pregnant…"
"When you found out you were pregnant, you shoulda come t'me! You shoulda let me be a father t'my own chile. You shoulda thought 'bout someone besides you! What 'bout Vivianne? Doesn't she have da right t'know who her father is?" Remy stopped pacing in front of where Jesse sat and looked down on her. She had been his closest friend at one time, yet she had still done this. It gave him the sick feeling deep in his gut that he had never really known her at all.
"I could not stand by and watch you build your life in the Guild, with Belle, and simply be a footnote to your story. I needed better for me and better for my daughter." She stood up to face him. Jesse was not about to sit still and let him brow beat her for doing the best she knew how to do for her own kid. She had been the one taking care of this child by herself for eight years and she was not about to sit there and take it anymore.
"Better? So now I'm not good enough. One minute you say dat you loved me, da next I'm not good enough for you or your chile. Make up your mind, Jess. You can't have it both ways." He moved away from her, the urge to throttle this woman an intense burning in his gut. Better to walk away than to give himself yet another source of guilt.
"I hated the Guild, Remy. I could not bear the idea of my child being raised a thief, for all I loved you, I needed better for her." She was now the one contemplating the mantle. Jesse reverently rearranged the silver framed pictures, telling herself that she did it all out of love for this child, that the hurt she had caused and endured was worth it all for a better life for her.
"So a t'ief was good enough to sleep wit, but not good enough to raise your chile? Did you ever stop t'think dat maybe I wouldn't ask you t'raise her a t'ief? Maybe I would have respected your decision? You seem t'have a very low opinion of some one you say you loved." His voice was biting and acerbic. He could not get past the feeling that Jesse was simply punishing him for not loving her the way she wanted him to. The idea that he was somehow unworthy of his own child, in Jesse's opinion, was a great gaping gash in his pride.
"I am not going to stand here and do this with you all night, Remy. I made the best choices for myself and my child that I knew how to make at all of eighteen years old. Maybe they weren't the best or the brightest, but I did the best I could. You can rant and rail all you want. Hell, you're probably right about a lot of it, but I can't change any of it." Her defiant If-I-Give-An-Inch-You'll-Take-A-Mile chin came up and he knew that she had planted her feet for battle. It was a brave face to cover the internal battle going on in her head. The reasons had seemed so sound when she had made the decision nearly a decade before, but confronted by the hurt and anger in his eyes, it all seemed a bit pale. Things had seemed so black and white that night, confronted by the idea of raising his child in the same city in which he shared a bed with another woman, leaving without telling him had seemed the perfect escape. Suddenly, various shades of gray were apparent and she knew she would be paying for that decision for a long time to come.
"So you t'ink saying dat you can't change da past is gonna make dis all go away? Not by a long shot. Y'see, Jess, I can't just walk away now." He stepped closer to her, the violence he wanted to do her gleaming in his odd eyes. "I fully intend on being in my chile's life. And if dat means I get the extra added pleasure of making you pay, den all da better."
"Oh, that's great parenting. 'I'm going to a be a great father to my kid, let's torture her mother right in front of her!' And you say my logic and reasoning is off." She rolled her eyes heavenward and walked away from him. Jesse was trying to be casual and dismissive, but she knew damn well he could find ways to make her pay.
"Oh, don't you worry, Cherie. Vivianne won't see anyt'ing but a happy family. And as a good mother, I'm sure you would never tell her any'ting dat might upset her, now would you?"
"You mean like telling her that her father is a thief? No, I wouldn't dream of it. She knows nothing about you, Remy and I intend on keeping it that way. We don't need or want you. When she's old enough to make that decision on her own, I'll tell her where to find you, but for right now, I don't want you within a thousand miles of my kid." He came at her in a flash. She had the odd sensation that she should have remembered how fast he could move when he was angry. Remy had her in a firm grip by her throat, not a hard squeeze, but a grip meant to pin her in place so he could look her in the eye.
"I don' recall askin' you what you wanted. You've had enough of what you wanted. Dis ain't about you, dis is about me and my chile. Mine. So you better tell her some'ting soon, because now we're playin' by my rules." Her eyes narrowed on him.
"Are we really?" A fist came up and connected with his solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him and forcing him to release her. As he fought to regain his breath, she spun and connected the top of her foot to the back of his knee, dropping him to his back. She stood over him, glaring furiously into his eyes.
"Don't you ever, EVER, try to manhandle or intimidate me again. You might be bigger, you might be stronger, but I will kill you if you lay a hand on me again." She kicked him in the side, forgetting yet again how fast he was. He grabbed her foot and yanked, sending her down to the floor with him. He made a quick move to grab her wrists and rolled to pin her beneath his weight.
"Now, now, now, Jesse, you used to like it when I laid my hands on you. Da little girl in question is proof of dat. But don' you worry. I don' take well t'sleeping wit common lyin', sneaky..."
"You seemed to enjoy sleeping with Belle well enough." She hissed at him and wriggled to free her arms. He growled at her and set her loose, not entirely trusting himself not to actually harm her at his point. Jesse rolled away and sat up on her knees, watching his every move. Remy stood, straightening his trench and brushing the errant lock of hair from his eyes.
"Okay, so we're gonna get nowhere like dis. You can' shut me out of dat little girl's life. Whether you like it or not, she's my daughter too. Get used to it, Jess. Daddy's home."