A/N: If you don't like the plot or characters or character pairings, then don't read my fic.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any variation of American Horror Story.
WORD COUNT: 2, 901
BOLD: Lines spoken in the actual episode.
CHAPTER 5
A Threat.
Jimmy sat outside on the small table, reading a newspaper. He had woken up before Valentina and had covered her in the blanket, letting her sleep when the police came. 'Finally.' He thought in relief. Dell would be gone by the end of the day.
After explaining himself to Elsa, he asked the question Jimmy had been waiting to hear, "Which one of these tents belongs to Dell Toledo?"
"What?" Dell asked, storming toward the policeman like a raging bull.
"That one over there!" Elsa pointed towards it.
After some commotion, to Elsa's and Jimmy's surprise, the badge wasn't in Dell's tent, to which the policeman started to search the grounds.
"Is this what guilt looks like?" Dell asked, walking towards Jimmy, who looked confused and worried. "Tragic, isn't it, when a plan breaks down?" Jimmy started to walk toward Elsa before Dell called him again, "Jimmy. There's no way the cops are ever going to find what you left behind in my trailer."
Jimmy's heart instantly raced as he heard a feminine scream.
Valentina.
"Stop! Let me go!" The cop that had grabbed her, forced her out of the trailer and shoved her hard and she fell to the ground, scraping her knees on the random pebbles and she yelped.
"Val!" Jimmy called out, running up to help her, cradling her small body to his chest, protecting her. "Are you alright?"
Valentina nodded, though she knew she was in pain, her knees had been ripped open and her palms all scratched up. "What's going on, Guapo?" Val asked, curling into her love.
"Found it, sir!" One of the policeman walked out of Meep's trailer, carrying the small man who whimpered and shook in the taller man's terrifying grip. All of the freaks turned and Valentina gasped. "It was under his bedroll." The officer threw the badge to the lead officer and his face hardened as he showed the badge to Elsa.
"This is Detective Bunch's badge."
Elsa shook her head. "I'm shocked, Officer. Shocked."
Valentina tried to get out of Jimmy's tightening hold, to get to Meep, to comfort him as he reached toward her, his eyes filling with tears.
"Take this freak to the station."
Meep was dragged to the car, whimpering. Val could tell he was terrified and she tried to reach for him. "Jimmy! Let me go!" Jimmy refused and kept a tight hold on her, trying to soothe her while Dell looked at the both of them with a smug look, further angering Val and she snarled loudly at him.
Dell took a cautious step back from the enraged woman but grinned and chuckled. "Might want to put your bitch on a leash."
"Shut your goddamn mouth!" Jimmy yelled, seeing red. Nobody talked about Val like that.
Dell chuckled as Jimmy, Val and Elsa walked to see Meep looking straight at them from the back window, his hands pressed against the glass.
Valentina couldn't take it anymore and buried her face in Jimmy's chest, sniffling as he ran his hands up and down her back, sharing a look with Elsa.
(..)
Valentina was walking by the Big Top when she heard a crash. "Jimmy!" Ethel's worried voice could be heard.
"Not Dell! Meep!" Jimmy's voice was slurred and Valentina ran in to see mother and son clinging to each other by the arms. "He's not going to be able to spend the night in jail, Mama." Jimmy's voice was barely a whisper, but Valentina heard him clearly. "He's not tough. He's just weird." Jimmy's sad smile brought tears to Valentina's eyes, but what broke her heart was what he said next. "I gotta. . .I have to tell them everything." Ethel shook her head as Valentina sobbed, running to him. "I'm sorry." Jimmy kissed Ethel's cheeks before turning to Val, and he pulled her in a tight hug.
She didn't care that he stunk of booze, she tried to push him toward the other exit. "Please, Jimmy. Don't!" She pleaded, rambling in Spanish as her emotions became higher and desperate.
"I love you, baby. Always will." Jimmy pressed a loving kiss to Val's lips and he stumbled toward the main entrance.
"Tell who what?" Ethel asked to Jimmy's back. "Jimmy? Jimmy!" Jimmy pressed on and Valentina ran after him, grabbing his arm as he tried to shake her off, but she refused to let go.
"You turn yourself in, then I'm going with you!" Val threatened, to which Jimmy rounded on her.
"Don't even think about it!" He slurred, trying to seem threatening, ordering her. "You go back to your trailer. I'm going to get Meep out. That's what you want."
"You don't get to order me around when your intoxicated, and we'll get him out, but I will not allow you to take his place!"
Jimmy waved her off as they heard a car coming up the entrance and they dropped a bag before driving off without a word of explanation.
Valentina, Jimmy and Ethel stared at the small bag before he knelt down and unwrapped it, to find Meep's bloody and beaten corpse. Valentina screamed in horror as the tears ran down her cheeks and to the dirt floor as Jimmy released a blood-curdling scream. Val dropped to her knees as Jimmy fell into her, sobbing. Ethel pressed a hand to her mouth in shock, before running a hand over his shoulder in an effort to comfort her distraught son.
The other members of the show came running up, displaying their shock and pain at the sight of the once cheerful Meep, reduced to nothing but a bloody mess.
Jimmy wrapped his arms around Valentina, his entire body shaking with the scream he emitted before burying his face in her neck, sobbing brokenly as Valentina could hardly speak but she kept running her fingers through his hair and rubbing his shoulders.
(..)
Halloween was Valentina's favorite holiday, but this year, she wouldn't be able to enjoy it as she would have last year. Both herself and Jimmy were caked in dirt as they were digging a small grave for Meep. Val had to wipe her eyes every five minutes from the tears until they finished and she dropped her shovel before barreling into Jimmy, holding him close.
"None of this, is your fault. Do you understand me?" Val said, taking his face in her hands, forcing his dark eyes to make contact with her wolf green.
"Meep died because of me." Jimmy whispered.
"No. He didn't. Those assholes in jail did. Dell killed him. Not you." Valentina said before pressing a gentle kiss to his cheek. Jimmy neither confirmed nor denied but they both held hands as they walked toward the Big Top and Valentina sat at the one of the chairs, trying to ignore the festivities going on around her, resenting how easily they all were enjoying themselves while Jimmy and herself had been digging a grave for their beloved friend.
"Where have you two been?" Bette asked, while Dot looked at the tired and distraught couple.
"We were digging a grave, for Meep" Jimmy answered, perspiration making his skin glisten in the dim light as he watched his family celebrate Halloween as if nothing happened. "He was a child. They all are." Jimmy mused, looking at each and every one of his family and friends. "I can't protect any of them." Jimmy turned his dark eyes to his dirty and weary partner, gazing upon the pure beauty even when she was covered in dirt and sweaty. "I can't protect my Val."
Dot's face turned into sorrow as she looked at the despondent expression on Val's face and the defeated look in Jimmy's. He thought himself a failure and Val turned her eyes to him, tears accumulating. "You can't blame yourself." Dot said, while her sister shook her head in agreement.
"Why not? They needed a leader and I failed them." Jimmy glared before walking to go join Valentina, to which she put her arms around him and he soothed her, trying so hard to keep his anger in check as he watched everyone around them have fun. It was cruel, in his eyes, to be partying while Meep would have to buried later in the day.
Val burrowed her head in the crook of his neck, to calm herself down before she let her anger rip through her self control.
"STOP! STOP IT, WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU ALL?" Dot screamed as the freaks instantly stopped what they were all doing. "Meep is dead! Don't you care?" Dot stared at each and every one of them with blazing anger. "You're being disrespectful!" Her eyes turned to Valentina and Jimmy. The young woman had lifted her head to look at Dot, the anguish in her eyes shown clear as day. "Look at how much pain Jimmy and Valentina are in! Meep looked up to Valentina as a child would a mother! How do you think she's feeling, with the thought that she had just witnessed a friend she treated as her son, dead?" Dot scrunched up her fist in anger as Val hid her face, her body shaking as Jimmy soothed her, rocking her body back and forth. "We should remember Meep by working even harder! Maybe dedicating the show today to his memory."
"The show?" Paul asked, incredulously.
"It's Halloween." Eve added, as if that made all the explanation.
Ethel who had just walked in, spoke. "No freak performs on Halloween. Any idiot knows that."
"It's not fair, they didn't know about that superstition." Jimmy spoke bleakly while Val listened silently.
"It's not superstition." Ethel reprimanded her son as she sat down. "It's true."
"What is?" Bette asked, softly.
"Why we don't perform on Halloween, on accounts of Edward Mordrake." Eve explained and Valentina tensed instantly upon hearing that name, her entire body shuddering as she stood instantly.
"Baby?" Jimmy asked, looking at the obvious fear etched on her expression as she ran out of the main tent, to everybody's surprise, including Jimmy's. He was about to get up and go after her, before his mother started to speak and he saw her pour a drink.
(..)
After a shower and dressing in her undergarments, she wrapped a silk robe around herself loosely before heading back to her trailer, pulling on tight shorts, her tail freely wagging on its own as she pulled on a top, the sleeves off the shoulder and paused around her midriff, a deep purple colour as she lay on her bed, trying to repress awful memories of Edward Mordrake during her time in the circus when she was 14.
A sudden knock on her door made her cry out in fear, before she asked. "Who is it?"
"Baby, it's me." Jimmy answered on the other side of the door before opening it.
"I could be indecent one day when you open that door without me giving you allowance into my trailer and everyone will see everything I am." Valentina joked, hoping to lighten the desolate mood that had settled over them, and to her happiness, Jimmy cracked a smile and chuckled, before he walked in and pulled her close, hugging her tight.
"Are you okay? I know that stuff about Mordrake scares you." Jimmy worried over her, his hands wrapping around her waist, to which he felt her shrug.
"I'm okay." Valentina said, before pulling back to look into his eyes. "Is it time?" She asked, to which Jimmy nodded and both sighed, before kissing lovingly. For strength as they walked out of her trailer and walked to where they had dug Meep's grave and she stood beside Jimmy, where Eve, Ma Petite, Paul, Suzy, Salty and Pepper, Toulouse and Cara all stood around Meep's casket.
"Halloween was Meep's favorite holiday," Jimmy started, "he loved to dress up." Val nodded, smiling gently at the memory of last year. "Hear the screams of the kids, when he'd sneak the occasional chicken head in their bag of candy." A collective laugh erupted around the group. Eve was trying so hard to keep her emotions in check, to which Valentina held her hand out and squeezed her hand, smiling at Ma Petite sadly who reached over and touched Valentina's cheek, who nodded, before turning back to Jimmy. "It was the only day he felt like he could be one of them." The group were passing around a brown paper bag full of chicken heads as they all took one out and she let out a shaky breath. "But we know this man. And he wasn't one of them. He was better." Val nodded as Eve passed the bag to her and she took out a dismembered chicken head before she passed it on to Jimmy. "We'll all miss you, Meep."
Paul took a drink out of his flask, which was full of alcohol. "Here's to you Meep, it's a little something to lighten the load as you walk through the valley of the shadows." Paul handed his flask down as they all threw their chicken heads on the casket to commemorate his life.
As the flask was handed to Jimmy, he poured his portion of the liquid on the casket. "Amen." Jimmy concluded as he passed the flask to Valentina.
She took a breath before sniffling and speaking in Spanish, "Nunca te olvidaré, mi ángel. Disfrute de su vida en la gran Freakshow en el cielo." I will never forget you, my angel. Enjoy your life in the big Freakshow in the sky. Valentina took a tentative sip, before handing it to Eve.
As they all grabbed their shovels, Valentina saw a yellow cab driving toward them as soon as Jimmy and Paul spotted it too.
Jimmy impaled the shovel in the ground and Valentina took his hand as they walked to the taxi.
The taxi driver got out of the car and opened the trunk, taking out feminine bags. "We're closed." Jimmy said, sounding exhausted as they saw a blonde woman with their back toward them. "There's no show today."
The woman turned, but Jimmy was hardly impressed as she flashed a dazzling smile at him. Valentina knew that a smile like that meant she was wanted something and she was ruthless in getting it. "I'm not a customer." She spoke, charmingly, but all Jimmy did was pull Val closer, he could feel the rumbling in her chest. "I'm looking for a job?"
Jimmy just looked tired. "Here? You made a mistake, you don't belong here." Jimmy said, as Val looked at the ground, envious of the woman's beauty.
"I came all the way from Philadelphia. My name is Mystic Miss Esmeralda. I'm a fortune teller."
Jimmy and Val looked at each other. Valentina had told him a lot about fortune tellers and how all of them looking into a job at circus or freakshow were usually frauds. "Well, Guapo. We have a seer in our midst." Valentina spoke as Miss Esmeralda turned her eyes to the wolf woman and tried to contain her utter mortification at the sight of Val.
Valentina turned her eyes to Maggie, before smiling, showing her fangs. "I'm Valentina Garcia, welcome to the freakshow." Val held out her hand as Maggie was extremely hesitant, to which both Jimmy and Val noticed but she shook her hand.
(..)
Valentina and Jimmy showed Maggie to Elsa's tent, and Val waited outside with Jimmy, who put his arms around her waist. "Did you see the way she was looking at you? I didn't like it."
"It's alright, mi amor. I'm used to it." Val said, smiling softly. "I'm going to go for a walk. I'll be back soon, alright?" Val said, while Jimmy nodded.
"Just be safe, baby. That killer is on the loose." Jimmy said, before kissing her softly and lovingly.
"I will be." Val smiled before walking away, toward the woods.
Maggie had seen the kiss and recoiled in disgust. 'How could anybody want to kiss that thing?'
(..)
Valentina was walking in the woods of a path she knew well. She had walked it a thousand times, what she had not known was the dangers that Jimmy had warned her of, was stalking her without her knowledge.
Val got as far as she could, when she saw a glimmer of silver in the short distance. "What-" before she could utter anything else, Twisty raised on of his juggling clubs and hit her with it. She collapsed to the ground, unconscious as Twisty lifted her up and carried her back to his trailer, and set her down in the cage where the other two of his captives, looked at the unconscious woman with sadness. She had been taken as well.
