Hey guys,
I know, i am not, in any way consistent with this story! I seem to update it at random. I'm sorry for that. As i reader there is nothing i hate more then a story that is not finished or updated with some regularity. But so many things get in the way of me finishing this. The largest being when i lost everything on my computer. my outline, the ending, and the next few chapters. that was a major blow. But I'm trying to finish this. So bear with me. And if any of you form the begging are still around, well kudos to you, cause this has been one long running story. So with out further ado, here's chapter 15.
Oh and a big thanks to Liz for betaing this. You can be sure that as soon as i get the next chapter finished i will be sending it to you. Thanks love.
Chapter 15
Walking hand in hand, Jesse and Lexa, headed down past the stables, Over the fence, into the pastures, and towards the river. Neither needing a light, as the moon shone brightly overhead, and the nightlife conducted its symphony around them. As they drew closer to the river, and start to walk around it shores, Jesse's voice finally rang out, cutting off Lexa's thought about the beauty surrounding her.
"I met Corina on my first solo undercover mission for Mutant X. I got this job as a bartender, at a place where Mutants had been disappearing. The word on the street had been that these mutants were being taken underground by some organization meant to help mutants. Something like we were at the time, however Adam had heard otherwise, that these mutants were being grabbed by the GSA. So I got this job at the bar, and I was so excited. Finally I could pull my own wait with the team. Show Adam and Shal that I could do more then help out with the computers, and in the lab. That I could handle myself. " As Jesse talked, he lead Lexa over to a piece of river bank that he had discovered earlier, checking the fences. Guiding her over the old tree, he gestured to the fallen log, fallowing her by sitting on nature's version of a bench.
"So every night I would serve drinks, get to know the locals, and keep my eyes and ears open. Btu nothing was really happening. Some mutants would come in, but they would come back again the next night. There were no disappearances. I was actually started to get worried. Can you believe that? Dumb kid that I as wanted to prove that I could handle myself, and how could I do that if nothing happened. Who cares, that everyone was safe."
"Adam had just told me, that he was going to pull me out in a week, when it happened. Corina came back." The disgust in his voice from only moments ago, quickly morphed into wonder and affection.
"Corina was the top waitress at the bar, and had been on vacation when I had started work there. But on her first night back, we hit it off instantly. We spend every spare moment we could together that first week, and I was dreading the end of the week when I knew Adam was going to call me back. Then on what should have been our last night together, one of the regulars, a feral, went missing.
Time seemed to fly by. And things between Corina and I grew more and more intense. The disappearing mutants, were second in my life, pushed aside by this… obsession that I seemed to have for Corina. However I was focused on my work enough to observe that the GSA and there agents were no where around the bar. That this could possible be what everyone thought it to be, an underground mutant safe network." No longer able to sit still, Jesse stood up, pacing in front of Lexa, who continued to sit there, watching him with a tender expression on her face.
"Then one night, after work, I went back to the apartment where I was staying at, and found Corina in tears. The place was a mess, and looked as it had been trashed. So of course I jumped a conclusion that someone had been there and that she was hurt. So I activated the comm ring calling in back up and went over to Corina to make sure she was okay. I went to take her into my arms, when she slapped me across the face."
Jesse turned towards the river, standing on the edge, as he let the memories of that night wash over him;
"How dare you!! I trusted you! I loved you! And you have been lying to me this whole time! Who the hell are you?" she screamed, tears running down her face, as she threw down a note book, that Jesse instantly recognized as his missions notebook.
"Corina I can explain. It's not as bad as you think."
"Not as bad as I think!" She hollered, her beautiful face turning red under the strain of emotions. " what should I think! You have been lying to me! And how can you explain this." she bent down and picked up the note book, flipping the pages open. "You've been spying on us. On me." She threw the book down again, brushing past Jesse avoiding his seeking hand.
"I believed in you! They tried to tell me what you were, WHO you were, but I defended you. I said it couldn't be you. Not my Jesse. Not the man who hold me through the night! Who brings me breakfast in bed. Runs bubble baths for me, and gives me foot massages after a hard night at the bar. Not the father of my child!!" Corina yelled, placing her arms protectively around the baby nestled in her womb.
"What?" Jesse whispered, his face pale at the hollered declaration. "You're pregnant? How? When?"
"How do you think Jesse." Corina cruelly taunted, her lips curved in a smile that held nothing but hatred and contempt. "I found out this morning, but have suspected it for sometime. I went I today to tell him I couldn't help him any more, that I had a baby on the way, and that I would need his help hiding now. that's when he told me who you were. And I defended you! I called him a lair! And it turns out that you were the liar. Did I mean anything to you!!! Not waiting for a response, she whirled around, heading back in to the bedroom, where she started throwing her clothes randomly into a bag.
"Wait!" Came Jesse frustrated voice, as he fallowed Corina into the bedroom." I don't understand what you are talking about. Who are you talking about? Why do you need to go into hiding?" His confusion clearing as soon as the words left his mouth. The new mutants that had disappeared, were being taken by the GSA. But they honestly thought they were being hidden in an underground. And Corina had been helping. As his heart started to break at this revelation, his logic started repeating his words back to him. 'Spying on us,' 'I couldn't help him any more, that I had a baby on the way, and that I would need his help hiding now.' She thought she was helping put these mutants in the underground. She was being lied to as well. The GSA were using her. She was innocent! And she thought that he was a bad guy as well, by the sounds of it. That HE, was the GSA.
"Corina Wait!" Jesse called out, Corina having left the room and apartment, while Jesse figured out what was going on.
Running after her Jesse, called out again, as he ran full tilt down the curving stair cases, after the women he loved and the baby she carried with in her. "Corina! Wait! He lied to you! I'm not here to hurt anyone!"
Crashing out of the stairwell, Jesse barley registered the cold rain that instantly plastered his shirt to his body, his hair already falling in wet strands around his face.
"Corina!"
Stopping, Corina slowly turned around to face Jesse. "How can I \believe you Jesse? That would mean that he is lying. He who saved me, helped to make me who I am today."
"Because you love me. And because I love you, so much. How could this be true if I was who, this guy says I am. You know I love you, you can see it in my eyes. You have felt it every time I touch you, when I make love to you. You would know If I was lying."
As he was talking, Jesse Slowly started to walk forward, each step taking him closer and closer to the women he loved. "Look in to my eyes now, Corina. And tell me that you don't think I love you."
"Don't do it Cor." A cultured voice stated from the shadows in the alleyway. "He's a bad guy. One of those GSA agents I told you about. You can't trust them." Out steeped a well dressed man. Tall, dark hair, Trench coat, and Bluer suit. Standard GSA uniform.
"Corina, look at me. I love you. I am NOT a GSA agent. That honor belongs to your friend here." Jesse pleaded, once again resuming his small steps towards her, as Corina's eyes widened.
"What?" She turned he gaze from Jesse to the agent and back again, clearly not knowing who to believe.
"Come on Cor, we have worked together for so long now. We have helped so many people together. You can trust me." the Suited agent, nearly purred, his voice dripping with comfort.
A little too much comfort, Corina thought, as she looked at these two men. A friend and a lover. A college and the father of her child. Which one to believe. She loved Jesse so much, but she knew that she had been helping people. She had proof that she had helped these people. Or did she? Had she ever seen any of them again? Heard from them? Receive some sort of communication. As Corina thought about it, keeping her eyes wearily on both men, she realized that out of the hundreds of people she had helped, not one had ever been seen or heard from again.
Her eyes widening at this very telling fact, Corina turned towards Jesse, her foot lifting to run to him. With her back to the Agent, she never saw the gun till, it was late. The bullets, ripped through her, like icy flames, piecing her very soul. Falling forward, to the cool, hard, and wet pavement, her own screams mixing with the sound of rain, the gun shots, and Jesse own anguished screams, Corina silently cried out for the lose of her child that she felt slipping away from her. She grieved for the life filled with happiness and love that she would never have, and she prayed for the man she loved, who she had inadvertently betrayed.
She felt Jess turn her over, and gather her in too his arms, her tears, his tears, and raindrops, mixing together and running down her face. She heard Jesse calling her name, declaring his love for her over and over, and his promise that everything would be okay, that she would be okay. Then with the last of her strength, and a supreme act of will, she slowly lifted her hand, gently placing her hand on his check. Then starring into those blue eyes so filled with Despair, love and sorrow, on a whisper she declared her love, and guided his warm lips down to hers for one final kiss. The warmth of his lips on hers the last thing she would ever feel, as the fire died in her eyes, and the breath left her body.
Falling out of the crystal clear memories, Jesse Found himself still standing on the river banks, looking out at the reflection of the moon on the water. The cold, death filled alley fading back into his memories.
"After that things kind of blur, most of what I know is from Shalimar who arrived on the scene, just after Corina died. She had been on her way over when I activated the ring, and was there within a couple of minutes. I snapped. The agent had others with him, one who came up behind me, and fired a sub-dermal governor into my neck. Didn't make a difference thought. I turned on him, breaking the arm he was holding the gun with, head butting him killing him instantly as his shattered nose bone drove into his skull. The next few guys were just as easy foe me to take out. Four of them Shal said, but all that I remember is that they stood between me and the bastard that killed Corina. I think one of them lived.
"Then it was just me and the agent. I never did learn his name, or any of the others. You think a man would know the names of the men he killed with nothing more then his hands. Anyways the agent rose his gun firing at me, the first missed purely by chance, the second tore thought me shoulder, but by then it was to late I was already on him. He put up even less fight then the other four. I'm not sure how I killed him, and Shalimar never told me. It was her who pulled me off him. Shalimar called Adam and they took care of everything. I refused to take another undercover mission, and preferred to leave fighting to others if all possible."
Turing towards Lexa for the first time since he started retelling his tale, he couldn't help the tremor that entered his voice, or the anguished that radiated from his eyes. "Lexa I killed those men, and nothing I do can ever make up for it. I wasn't protecting someone, I wasn't being controlled by an implant of another mutants mind. And I didn't have to kill them all. But I wanted to. And God was it easy." lifting his hands up in front of his face, Jesse remembered what they looked like, covered in the blood of the men he killed, and the women he loved. "I don't ever want to do anything like that again. I don't want to become a monster."
Stepping forward, Lexa placed her hands, on Jesse, grasping them, and holding them against her chest, she looked into Jesse eyes. Trying to convince him that what she as about to say was nothing but the truth. "Jesse it is that, your grief and your self loathing, that will keep you from being a monster. Jess they killed the women you loved, your child, and they were going to take you. You fought back, they wouldn't have hesitated to kill you. And if they had killed you where would Shalimar be now? Or Adam? Or any of the countless number of others that you have helped to save. Or me? Who else would have been stubborn enough to save me from the DXL?" Letting go of his hands, Lexa gently framed Jesse's face with her hands. "Jesse, I know what it is like to lose the person you love most in the world. How you constantly question why them and not you. How you feel you don't deserve to be here. Btu you are. We are. And those who love us wouldn't want us to waste our lives on regrets. They would want us to be happy, to love again."
Lifting a hand up to her face, Jesse gentle catches a tear on his finger, wiping the rest away with his thumb, a small watery smile gracing his lips. "I know Lexa. It took me a long time to realize that, but I know that now. But this situation with Cat scares me. I am so worried that I will make the same mistakes. Lose her trust, and end up getting her killed. I don't know if I can handle that again."
"But you don't have to Jesse. This time you aren't alone. You've got me."
Looking down into Lexa's eyes, Jesse felt a piece of himself heal, and part that he though would be broken forever. This time when he smiled, it reached his eyes.