Author's Note: I don't own anything.
15 What Could Have Been
On their way back to Bellwood Glen spoke up.
"I want to learn how to do magic. If you hadn't been able to get back up then we might have been shit out of luck. I need to be able to do more." He said glancing up at Jay where she was curled in the front seat, his eye catching on the crack in her face. She nodded.
"So I take it you haven't even looked at the books I lent you." She deadpanned, rolling her eyes. He flushed slightly. But she kept talking. "Well we'll need a place where we wont be disturbed for a few hours if you want me to start you out on the basics." Kevin piped up from behind the wheel.
"I know a place. You can stay at my house again and we'll head there after school." Jay rolled her eyes but raised no objection to staying in the Levin household again. She was busy examining her fingers. Glen frowned. Had it always looked like she'd dipped her fingers in purple ink up to the second knuckle. He had a sneaking suspicion that it hadn't.
"Sounds like a plan now let me sleep." She said curling up in her chair again and seeming to fall straight off to sleep. Glen glanced at Kevin but he kept his eyes resolutely on the road. Neither of them were entirely sure what any of this meant to Jay. Was she losing control again? Glen sat back considering that possibility. The problem with that theory was that she wasn't acting as unstable as she had when they were kids. A little grumpy maybe but he'd be grumpy too if his would be boyfriend had turned out to be an energy vampire who just wanted an all you can eat buffet. He shook his head, she wouldn't be offering help if she was slipping back to the mental place she'd been in at ten. Physically, well that was a different question entirely. He frowned as he thought about what she'd said to him during the incident at Grovers Mill.
'You thought we were completely human?' The question had haunted him since she'd asked it, rhetorical as it had been at the time. He'd thought so often in the week since about asking his parents straight out if they knew about aliens, about the Plumbers, about magic. But he hadn't been able to work up the courage, or maybe he didn't want to know the real answers. He turned to the windows staring out of them just for something to do as they drove back into Bellwood and to Kevin's house. Kevin didn't live too far from Glen, just a few streets separating his home life from the madness. He shook his head as he headed home.
He stepped into the house and was greeted by his mother who smiled at him.
"How was school?" She asked and he shrugged.
"The usual. Hey is dad home yet?" Glen asked snagging a cookie out of the jar in the kitchen.
"He's up in the office, don't eat too many of those you'll spoil dinner." Glen nodded and headed upstairs to the office his father used when at home. His father was a lawyer and a good one at that, he often brought work home with him. Glen knocked on the door and a moment later his father called for him to come in. He did, perching himself on the edge of his father's desk. He was met with a raised eyebrow.
"You look like something's bothering you." Frank pointed out, setting his papers aside and turning his full attention to his son.
"Yeah, a little." Steeling his courage he took a deep breath and asked a question. "How come you never talk about Grandma?" Frank blinked as if completely caught off guard.
"Well your grandmother… she lives very far away." In space? Was that the implication hiding behind his father's words? "It's difficult to contact her, and she's not great about responding to calls even if it was easy. What brought this on?" Glen nearly balked, the threat of a major hexing still hanging over his head.
"We were doing some genealogy stuff in class. I got curious." He switched tracks quick. "Have you heard from Uncle Carl recently?" Carl Tennyson was Jay's father and Glen hadn't seen him in person in years, but he knew that the brothers were as close as they could be after everything the family as a whole had been through.
"Actually yes, he called the other day. He and Sandra are thinking of taking a vacation out here to California soon." Glen had to hold in a snort, there was just too much irony in the possibility of Jay's parents popping by so soon after she'd made her reappearance. "They haven't decided if they will though. Carl's a bit on the fence about it." That made Glen frown.
"Why, it feels like they haven't left Wisconsin in a while." Glen said not really thinking. Frank nodded.
"Not in almost six years no." The implication made Glen blink. Frank seemed to catch on to the change in mood in the room. "Your uncle thinks it's still possible that Jennifer might come back."
"Jay." Frank frowned at his son. "She liked to be called Jay, not Jennifer." Glen clarified, covering his ass as much as correcting his father. Frank nodded laying a hand on his son's shoulder.
"Yeah, no one's heard from your cousin in almost six years. I know it's hard but maybe some time with the rest of the family will help your uncle. That's what I've been telling him anyway. I'm not sure there's anything that really helps in a situation like that though." Frank said gently squeezing his son's shoulder. "I'm trying to convince your brother to come for spring break too, but I'm not sure he will." Glen nodded.
"I'll talk to him too, see if I can help you push him over the edge." Have to be careful not to mention the fact that our wayward cousin is living somewhere in Bellwood. He still wasn't sure where she was living though or he might just show up on her doorstep. He hopped off the desk and made for the door when a thought occurred to him. "Uncle Carl never stopped looking for her?"
"I don't think he'll stop until he finds out what happened." Frank said with a sad smile. Glen nodded.
"Did he get one of those composite sketches of what she might look like now?" Frank raised an eyebrow. "Cooper really likes bad cop shows, it was just a thought." Glen said going red. Frank reached into his desk and pulled out a sheet of laminated paper.
"I will never understand your boyfriend." Frank said shaking his head and handing the paper over to Glen who took it without really looking at it yet. Frank hugged his son. "Dinner should be ready soon, see about getting your homework done soon." Glen nodded and headed into his room. He had finished his homework during his study hall so instead he sat down on his bed and turned his attention to the paper in his hands.
The likeness wasn't great. For one thing the face looking up at him from this page had none of Jay's facial piercings. For another she looked too ordinary. He would guess it was standard in this kind of sketch but she wore a plain white t shirt, her hair only fell to her shoulders, a standard haircut, but far from Jay's long flow of hair that reached nearly to mid back. If he had to guess he'd say she hadn't had a hair cut since getting tossed into the Null Void if not before. The image wore no makeup, it was odd to see Jay without the black lips he had grown used to. He wasn't sure if that was a product of makeup or something more sinister but the contrast was odd. It was like looking at a photo of what could have been, if she'd never run away in the first place. He slipped the paper into the first primer she'd given him wondering what she'd say when he showed it to her tomorrow.
