Entangled

A/N: TW Domestic Abuse. Lila Valeska is not happy about it, for obvious reasons—but it does end with a nice bit of fluff if that's any comfort to you.

Chapter Six: The Family Secrets

There stood Lila Valeska, dressed in her side-show, sea-sick green bedazzled gown, face caked with makeup—jaw dropped and eyes wide with the scene in front of her. It seemed to take her a second to understand exactly what she was seeing. Her eyes hastily shuttered across the floor at Jerome's abandoned jeans and boxers, turning in horror at Deedee's unclasped tinkling fire-dancing costume; the sweaty sheets and the crumpled blanket which was the only thing shielding Jerome's bare ass and Deedee's genitals. Jerome, still slumped over Deedee's exposed breasts—

"What in God's name are you doing!?" Lila roared furiously, entering full-bodily into the room.

Jerome rolled off Deedee, hastily grabbing his boxers and shoving them up his legs; Deedee pulled the blanket up to her neck to cover herself. Lila slammed the door shut, and without fail, she reached toward Jerome as he uttered a painful grunt, pulling him by his ear,

"What," Lila raised a hand and starting hitting Jerome across the back with an open hand, thundering her heavy arm into him with every word, "are—you—doing—?!"

Deedee made to move out of bed to stop Lila's beating, but Lila whipped around and back-handed her across the face, sending Deedee face-first into the pile of pillows on the bed.

"What, so you two decided to literally sleep together?" Lila said hysterically, her voice reaching a new octave. "What is wrong with you two?"

Jerome let out painful gasps as Lila pulled him to the floor.

"Lila, stop!" Deedee called out angrily, as she moved out of bed. A solid handprint burned into her cheek; she quickly threw on an old pair of sweatpants and a loose T-shirt, stumbling toward Lila. "MOM!"

Lila turned around, releasing her grip on Jerome and rounded on her next, "And you! You really are a fucking whore, aren't you? But with your own flesh and blood! How disgusting can you get, Delilah!?"

"That's not my name!" Deedee remarked hotly, pitting her face two inches away from her mother's. "Jerome treats me more like family than you do."

"Clearly, all I'd have to do to make you feel comfortable is to make you scream my name, isn't it!?" Lila yelled, her face paling. "I thought you were just getting yourself off, as if you weren't loud as it is, and what I come in here to see is that your brother—" She putted her leg to the side, swiftly kicking him in the stomach and drawing out a cry of pain— "is mounting you like a fucking dog!"

Jerome struggled to his feet.

"Mother, it's—" he started his sentence in a low voice, but Lila turned to him.

"Did you rape your sister? What kind of fucking animal are you?" Lila's face turned beet red.

"I didn't," Jerome said irritably. "I wouldn't—"

"He didn't rape me, Mom," said Deedee, gesturing a hand toward him. "I wanted him to—"

Lila held a finger up, shaking her head quickly, "Don't you dare finish that sentence, Delilah."

"THAT'S NOT MY NAME!" Deedee roared furiously.

"YES, IT IS! Your blessed father named you that, so yes, that's your name!" Lila screamed, jutting a finger into Deedee's shoulder. "That pathetic, old fool—"

"I didn't ask to be named after you!" Deedee returned. "I don't even go by your name!"

Jerome glanced at Deedee furtively. Jerome was aware that Mr. Cicero was Deedee's "biological father", and he sympathized that she didn't have such a grand, ideal father figure as Jerome was told that he had. A sea captain who had sunk to the bottom of the sea with his ship was a better story than being fathered by a blind, old creep like Mr. Cicero. Yet, even though Cicero was the sperm donor, he didn't act paternally as a daughter would like. He didn't protect her from the nasty old men who wanted their way with Deedee. That job was left to Jerome.

"Mom," Jerome said collectively, "it just happened."

Lila turned to him.

"So exactly," she asked him with a curled upper lip, "when did you start thinking about your older sister like that? You've shared the same bed since you were eight-years-old!"

"Don't you think that's got something to do with it?" Jerome spat at her, suddenly furious.

"What, you been leering at her when she's been getting dressed?" Lila said. She shook her head, "Don't answer that."

"No more than she's been leering at me," Jerome remarked in a suddenly cold voice, glancing at Deedee.

Deedee's face burned.

Lila suddenly turned to her daughter, pointing an accusing finger at her, coming to what could have been an ever more daunting realization.

"You. You seduced my son, didn't you?" Lila took a step toward her. "You and your seductive ways, the way you seduced that man when—"

With one swift movement, Deedee's hand flew across Lila's face, sending her backward against the dresser.

"I didn't seduce that boyfriend of yours," said Deedee darkly. "And you know it. He was a fucking pedophile, a disgusting low-life, and you knew what he did; and you didn't stop him. It's not my fault."

Lila rubbed her cheek, glowering at the two of them, "You seduced Jerome. My poor baby, you took advantage of him—Why else would he want to have anything like—like that—to do with a whore like you—?!"

"Deedee, no…"

Jerome stepped pass Lila quickly and caught Deedee's wrist with his hand, pulling her away from their mother. Deedee stared at Lila, a murderous expression on her face. Jerome would have let her, he would have. But if something happened to Lila after just discovering their secret, it would have reflected poorly anyway. The Circus took care of their own—but they also punished their own if they ever discovered that a Family's life was taken by another member.

Jerome could contain his own emotions to act rationally, to think straight in the middle of a sensitive confrontation such as this—but it was quite clear that there was no sense of self-control for his sister. She'd have laid her flat just then.

"Deedee…" Jerome said in a low voice, "Stop."

"She can't say stuff like that to me," said Deedee hotly, though her voice was breaking. She pulled her wrist out of Jerome's grasp; he held his hands up in front of her to stop his sister from pushing past him. "Jerome, she—"

"I know." Jerome muttered, in an attempt to soothe her. "I know." He gave her a pointed look.

He turned to Lila, "Our secret's out. We didn't tell you because we knew you'd be upset. We didn't want to upset you."

Deedee stared at him. He was conning Lila. In an effort to dilute the situation, she stayed silent. Jerome could compartmentalize; and he did it with such ease. Psychopath. Jerome steadied a hand out in front of him, to gesture for Lila not to hit either of them as he reached down to the floor and found a shirt. He pulled it over his head.

"It's a disgusting thing," Lila said. "The fact that you two would romp in the sack. Blood relatives."

"We see your point," said Jerome, attempting veil his annoyance. "But it happened, Mom. It just happened."

Lila frowned at him. "I'm not okay with any of this, Jerome. This is the worst thing that you could have ever done to me. Delilah, I expected this from—but I would have thought that your behavior would have skewed a bit higher when Jeremiah was gone…" A heavy pause. "The trailer's a mess. You should get to working on the chores…"

Deedee stepped forward.

"You're going to tell the Family, aren't you?" she said quietly.

"You bet your ass, I am," Lila hissed at her. "The fact that my daughter has brought in yet another man in my life that I love into the barrels of sin—The Family will know. Of all the freaks that we have in our little show, you two…You're a side show on your own…"

She continued to insult them, to disparage just how much their passionate love-making had come at a cost to her own conditional love for them. But Lila only glared at the two of them as she strode toward the door.

"I won't be staying here often, Jerome," said Lila. "I'll be going out a few nights with some boyfriends of mine."

"That's fine, Mom," said Jerome.

"Oh, good," said Deedee breathlessly, "then that means you won't be home for a few days, then…"

"I'm sure that makes you very happy, Delilah." Lila said waspishly. "It's so harsh to want to have your only parent gone for days at a time. After all I've done for you, Delilah."

"Mother." Deedee growled.

"I am not calling you 'Deedee'," she said abhorrently. "For all I know, that's what your brother calls you when you…Ugh…" A nasty shiver tingled her spine, for she shuddered in dismay at the images that must have flashed through her head.

Lila left the room, cursing under her breath about what a god that she didn't believe in had forsaken her. She wasn't even religious, though. Deedee slowly turned to Jerome, whom uttered a slow breath of relief and assumed a look of pure exasperation on his face. He took up a shirt lying on the floor and dabbed his face with it. Deedee stepped toward him, grabbing the cloth out of his hands and used a hand to tilt his face up to the light.

Lila had beat him to the point where blood had covered half of his face. While she attempted to mend his wounds, Jerome's eyes bored into hers.

"We should have killed her," said Deedee coldly.

"And then what, Deedee? The Circus would have figured it out and we'd have either been exiled or gotten ourselves killed." Jerome said. "Though, for what it's worth, the Bitch isn't going to be here often."

"And what kind of relief is that, honestly?" Deedee muttered, glancing over his shoulder through the open door. "So, she can insult us on the days that she is home? So, she can continue to let strange men ogle at me when I dance? Or beat you?" she added distastefully. She paused. "It's no life. We've done this more than once, Jerome."

"We can be free, Deedee. We can, but you have to stay calm."

He stopped her from wiping his face with a hand.

"I'm not sure if I have that in me," she said. "I'd have killed her."

"I'd have let you." Jerome said with a grin. "It would have been hilarious."

A beat passed.

"Too bad your dad didn't see this coming," Jerome remarked off-handedly.

Deedee frowned. "He's no father to me. According to Lila, it was an off-handed, drunk one night stand that she regretted. Happened only one time. And the one time, she got me, so…" Deedee seemed to shrug it off, but Jerome could see that it bothered her. "I guess that's why she regrets it."

"She feels like that with anyone she's been with." Jerome muttered, indicating the sea captain. "Guess my dad dodged a bullet, didn't he?"

"Guess so," Deedee replied.

Jerome pointed at the half-smile that tugged at the corner of her lips. "Come on, Deedee. Give us a smile."

"Not in the mood," Deedee said.

"Then give us a taste," Jerome retorted with a smirk.

Deedee blinked. She was a bit taken off guard; but Jerome didn't wait for her to understand what he meant, for Jerome leaned in and pecked her on the lips, testing the waters. Jerome felt the satisfaction as he felt her lips break into a genuine smile as she returned it.

Lila Valeska would spread the word of incest like a wild fire. For what it would be worth, at least there would be new gossip instead of the ol' Great Debate between the Lloyds and the Graysons about a stolen horse…or the fact their mother was sleeping with both Heads of the families.