disclaimer: Standard Jenny. I own no recognizable trademarked characters. However Jenny is MINE, and I will fight you for her. I have been known to share if you ask nicely though.
pre-note: This story takes place during chapter 16 of "Human and the Demon" after Jenny has gone back to work. Just a look at the otherside of her life.
Work Related Issues
by Dizi
One week after Jenny started back to work at Harry's Bar...
"Three drafts and a screwdriver." Jenny ordered.
Harry grunted and grabbed some clean glasses. "You think about what I said?"
"You were serious?" she asked incredulously.
"Yes, I was serious!" He had to stop himself from shouting too loud. Why would she think he'd say it if he wasn't serious?
"I'll talk to you about it later." she promised setting the drinks on her tray.
"Don't you think I'll forget, girl!" He called as she walked away, and muttered to himself, "Didn't think I was serious. She think I say things for the fun of it?" he caught the eye of one of the 'new girls'. He couldn't remember her name. Didn't matter they never lasted long. Except Jenny. "What are you looking at? Get to work! I got customers!"
Later that night (or the early hours of the next morning)...
The bar was closed, everyone was gone, the place was clean, the money counted, and Jenny patiently waited for Harry to speak his mind. He avoided her eyes and checked the stock again even though he had already finished restocking.
"Well?" she prompted, absentmindedly wiping the bar with her rag.
"Well what?"
"Have I done something wrong?"
"That's a stupid question. It's not a matter of you doing something wrong. Hell, I'd welcome that. Don't get enough chances to yell at you."
Jenny tapped her nails on the surface, her chin resting in the other hand, thinking. "Then why would you say that?"
"Dammit, woman!" Harry exploded. "You almost died last year and you were kidnapped this year. I don't want to see what happens next year. I ain't having it in my place!"
"I was here two years before that and nothing happened!" she protested, sitting up straight.
"I didn't like you then." he said in an undertone, then continued normally. "And it was a year and a half. Hell, maybe you got one coming and it could happen anytime now. I'm an old man, my heart can't take it."
"You don't have heart problems," she pointed out, "and you can take just about any five men who come in here at once without help."
"Don't argue with me!" He stood firm and crossed his beefy arms over his chest. "I want you to quit."
"Well, I'm not gonna." Standing, Jenny mirrored his stance. "This place is more home than my house or that monstrosity of a mansion. I like it here fine and I'm not quitting, you'll have to fire me."
"I can't fire you, or you'd already be gone!" He loomed over her and shouted in her face.
"If you want me gone, you'll have to fire me!" She shouted back, standing on tiptoe to get as much in his face as she could, not giving an inch.
"You're being stubborn!"
"I learned it from you!"
"Quit!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"You coming in tomorrow!"
"No, I'm off!"
"Fine!"
"Fine!"
Forty eight hours later...
"You quitting yet?" Harry called as Jenny and Kurt walked out the door.
Jenny whirled around to face him. "You firing me yet?"
"No!"
"No!"
"Fine."
"Fine."
A week later...
Kurt sat at the bar waiting for Logan, but he was watching Jenny.
Harry narrowed his eyes at him. "She's your woman, why don't you make her quit? Don't you want her to work someplace safer than here? Thought you loved her."
"Ja, to both." Kurt gave him a surprised look. "I vould like her to vork someplace safer and I love her very much."
"Then make her quit."
"I cannot." he shook his head. "If I vere to tell her she cannot do somezhing zhen she vould no longer be mine. Besides, she vould not be as happy somevhere else."
"Ah, you ain't no help." Harry grunted.
"You are not zinking clearly." Kurt said seriously. "If she vere ze kind to simply do vhat I say, you vould not be happy vith her."
"Damn right." Harry said proudly. "My Jenny don't take crap off nobody and don't you forget it."
"She loves you, too."
"That's right, and don't you-" Harry blinked at him. "She what?"
"I said she loves you too." Amused, Kurt took in his shocked expression. "It is not simply zis place she vill not leave, it is you."
"You think that's it?" Harry demanded.
"Ja, if you vant her to leave you must fire her, and she may not really go zhen. She could become a full-time patroness."
"She'd do that, wouldn't she? Just to get back at me. She'd be a real bitch of a customer too." He grunted. "Guess there's only one thing to do."
"Is gut, ja? You have answer."
"Yeah, I got an answer." He shook his head and sighed. "God help us."
After closing, but before time to go home...
Harry watched her sorting the money. "You ain't gonna quit, are ya?"
"Nope." Jenny finished separating the bills and started neatening the stacks of cash. "You gonna fire me?"
"Humph. No." Harry grabbed the twenties and started counting them.
"Fine."
"Fine."
Two weeks later...
"Hey, Jenny? You got something kinda official looking in the mail." Lacy said holding out an envelope.
"Huh? Something official?" Jenny took it and looked it over. "Who's 'Granger, Clarkson, and Kimble'?"
"It sounds like lawyers or something." She nudged Jenny jokingly. "Got some old parking tickets or is someone suing you?"
"Yeah, sure. I don't drive, and the only one I know with enough money to sue anyone is Warren and I'm pretty sure he has bigger fish to fry than that one scorched shirt more than a year ago." she snorted. Jenny had it open by then and unfolded the letter inside. "'Dear Miss Green'," she read aloud, "blah, blah, blah, 'this letter is to inform you', blah, blah, blah, 'properties known as Harry's Bar'?" She read silently for a moment, then turned it over looked at the backside and back over to the front again. "Is this some kind of joke? What's he up to?"
"Who?" Lacy asked in confusion. "I didn't quite follow that."
"Harry. If this is a trick to get me to quit, he's way off-track." Jenny said heatedly. "I'm going to see him and set him straight once and for all." She grabbed her bag and stomped out of the house, Lacy staring after her and the letter still clutched in her hand.
Fifteen minutes later...
"What is this?" Jenny demanded, waving the letter in Harry's face.
"How the hell should I know?" He said irritably.
"It says I'm your beneficiary!" she yelled.
"Well, you know what it is then, doncha?" He said in satisfaction with a smirk.
"Is this some kind of joke? Because it's not funny!" She obviously wasn't done yelling.
"Hell, no! I don't joke about my place." He shook a finger in her face. "I figure you like it here so much you'll treat it right if something happens to me."
In shock, Jenny sat on a barstool. "You're giving me your place?"
"Well, not right away, but if I'm gone you're stuck here." Harry said calmly. "You say you're not leaving anyway, so it works out."
She stared at him in still in shock.
"You want a drink?" he raised a brow and grinned at her. "On the house, and you know I don't say that often."
"Sure." she said weakly.
"So you gonna marry that man of yours?" he asked innocently.
Jenny took a big drink of the rum and Coke he set in front of her. "He wants me to, but you better hope not. If I do you're gonna have to dress-up. In a tux."
"Like hell I am!"
"Like hell you are!"
"Not!"
"Are!"
"Not!"
"Are!"
"You working tomorrow?"
"Try to keep me away."
"Fine."
"Fine."
"So..." Jenny swirled her drink. "Who's this Racquel who called the other day? She seemed nice."
"Don't you start with me, woman." He said sternly, forcing his smile away.
Jenny grinned.
note:
CaptainTish- I'll be honest and say you won't see much on Kurt's adopted family here because I either didn't pay attention or just don't know enough to feel comfortable writing about them. Sorry. The "issue", as you say, is something new for Jenny to deal with. When she was fourteen with everything else she would have pretty much pushed it from her mind, probably denial or some sort. And later she ignored it, but now with Kurt she has to face it and it's taking her some time.
GothikStrawberry- Thank you! I felt Kurt needed to express himself.
Shorty McGee- No worries, I'm still at it. Just finished another short story.
Jinxeh- I can see them taking in troubled teens before they go to the mansion or ones that get to the mansion but need special help. Maybe some that need to see how humans and mutants can live together in a family type environment. But I'm concentrating on the ones that are going to be 'theirs' as opposed to the temporary ones. So if you don't see it, just know that's what happens.
B Oots- Hey! Missed you! I don't think I'll have a short on the after effects of the proposal besides the Kurt pov. I think it's portrayed well enough in the main story. But don't worry there's more to come!
Okay unless something changes (and it sometimes does) I don't expect there to be another short story until after chapter 19. But there are two that will need to go out between 19 and 20. One is pov and the other is not, but they both need to be done before 20. Which delays the last chapter I know but has to be that way. Sorry.
Thanks for reading and the support,
Dizi