The Boat That Rocked (Rocketshipping Fanfic)
Part Nineteen
Jaime watched the various emotions flicker across James' face, a stray tear shivering on his cheek.
This hurts. This hurts badly. She looked away. When she had first seen Jessie standing in her apartment doorway Jaime had had her suspicions but now she truly knew.
James had left the island because he felt he had nowhere to belong and that they expected him to be someone who no longer existed. So he left, finding a place that accepted him for who he was now, and in that search he found Jaime.
I loved him for who he is, not for who he was. I was his Jessie that wasn't waiting for his true self – the old James.
I was his Jessie.
They indeed looked similar and both were part of the darkness – though Team Rocket was different to the shadows of the city. He had found solace in someone who felt like the person he had forgotten.
And now he's realized that they did accept him – that he was always their James, no matter what. They are, and always were, part of him, even if none of the memories remain.
James doesn't need me anymore.
Jaime pushed the mug of coffee away and rose from her seat. James glanced up at her and reached across the table for her hand. She pulled away.
"Jaime?"
"Alphonse was right," she said softly, not meeting his questioning gaze. "He always said that business came before everything else. The only thing more important is family. Business and family is the only thing he needed, he said. I should have listened."
James frowned. "What do you mean?"
"I should have kept my distance from you the moment I realized my feelings. But I didn't. And Alphonse used me to get to you, to get you to work for him. I got in too deep. I let myself fall in love with you and I'm paying for it."
James opened his mouth to speak but she lifted a hand, silencing him. "Alphonse sees it as you having betrayed him, and he hunts down traitors and makes them pay. If they run, he usually sends his men after them – especially if they leave the mainland." She paused, licking her suddenly dry lips, wincing slightly as her tongue swept over fresh cuts in the fragile skin. "But this time he's come himself. He's personally going to make you pay."
The Meowth stepped towards her, claws clicking on the tabletop. "Why? Why would he go that far?"
She looked down at the Pokémon, a flash of disdain in her eyes. You take James away from me and you don't even have the respect to not walk on the kitchen table. "Family is more important than business," she lifted her eyes to meet James' unreadable gaze. "And you took his sister. He would never allow a Rocket, never mind a traitor, to take his sister."
James stiffened. "Sister? You're his sister?"
Jaime nodded. "We both kept our own secrets."
His face abruptly shut down, his expression becoming cold, his eyes burning with a frozen flame. That's it, James. Grow to hate me so I can hate you.
A tense silence developed, wrapping around them like shackles of melting iron, when Meowth spoke up, "So you're gonna protect your brother and not help us save Jessie?"
She laughed once, a harsh and sarcastic sound. "He doesn't need protecting, not by me."
James had his head bowed, his long fingers tapping lightly on the table, his eyes closed. He'll let me go, right? He has to let me go.
Jaime turned, moving rapidly into the living room and down towards the front door. He has to let me go.
Opening the door, she glanced over her shoulder. He's not coming after me. He's letting me go.
She stepped out and the door swung shut. He's let me go.
Her chest hurt and it felt difficult to breathe but she continued, descending the stairs quickly. She reached the bottom and was prepared to start running, wanting to get away as fast as possible, when she collided with someone.
"Ah- sorry." She apologized, already moving around the person, when a hand grabbed her upper arm.
Immediately she spun around, grabbing the person's wrist and twisting it back. The person cried out in pain and to her shock she realized that she was holding onto Lisa – the girl from next door. She let go.
The girl rubbed her wrist where her skin was turning red. Jaime looked away, cursing her instinctive reaction that ended up hurting her.
"Jaime, right?" Lisa asked softly, as if what had happened never happened at all.
"Yeah." She nodded, shuffling uneasily.
"Is James doing okay?"
Jaime blinked. The question was loaded, the smile on the girl's lips showing that she knew exactly who James was and had got a good idea of who – no, what – Jaime was.
A surge of self-disgust threatened to overwhelm her and she jerked her head to the side, clenching her fists in her pockets. "James is…" I don't want to lie. I'm tired of lying, of keeping secrets. "…doing quite badly."
The girl shrugged. "He hurt Jessie, so I suppose karma is coming back on him."
Jaime raised an eyebrow, anger rising in the back of her throat. "Jessie has been taken and James is screwed over. He's trying to think of a way to get her back, so shut up little girl and get a new perspective on things."
She spun around and started sprinting down the road, increasing the distance between her and the apartment block. Everything's going wrong.
#
Meowth was still standing on the kitchen table, watching James who hadn't moved an inch since Jaime had left the apartment. He moved closer and was about to place a paw on the man's arm when a knock on the door startled him.
Glancing back and forth between the kitchen doorway and James, Meowth soon realized that he would have to be the one to answer the door.
He leapt off the table, trotting on all-fours to the door, bouncing up to turn the latch and pull down the handle. It swung open to reveal Lisa standing beyond the threshold, panic clear on her face. "Meowth! Where's James?"
He blinked. She knew James was here? "He's in the kitchen."
The girl rushed past him, leaving the cat Pokémon to close the door. Following her into the kitchen, he stared open-mouthed as the young girl stepped forwards, grabbed the frozen man by his wrists and shook him violently, gaining his attention. "James, James – what are you doing? What are you doing sat here? Is it true that Jessie has been taken?"
"Who told you that?" James' response was calm and low, his eyes gazing steadily at Lisa.
"Jaime," she replied, somewhat breathless. "She couldn't get out of here fast enough after she told me."
After a long pause, James began to explain the circumstances, including his work in the city, the executioners, Alphonse and Jaime.
Lisa appeared to be taken aback, her hand holding her head as she took everything in. "So this Alphonse has Jessie?"
"Yeah," Meowth interjected before James could answer, returning to his position on the table. "And we need a plan to get her back, right James?" He looked expectantly at the blue-haired man.
James straightened the cuffs of his shirt, his gaze stuck on the young girl that seemed to tower over him. "I have a plan. I've been thinking about it since Jaime told me about being Alphonse's sister."
Meowth flicked a claw, watching the light glint on the sharp point. "She ain't gonna help us. She said so."
"She won't help me die was what she said. This plan will work…right?" Meowth was surprised to see James' eyebrows arched, a half smile on his lips.
Lisa leant forwards, planting her hands on the table, her face close to James'. "I better be in this plan as well."
"No way!" Meowth exclaimed. "It's too danger-"
Lisa held a hand over his mouth to silence him, his next words muffled into her palm. "Well?"
James tapped the table with a long finger. "I need you to get Jaime on side."
The two stared stunned at him. Lisa gets Jaime on side? Why? Wouldn't Ja-
"Wouldn't you be the best person to do that?"
He started running a finger along the ridges of his knuckles, trailing it up his hand to his shirt sleeve where he unbuttoned it, then buttoned it, straightening it once again. "She doesn't want to see me anymore."
What? That woman loves you, it's obvious! Why are you so oblivious to the feelings of those around you?
James looked directly at Meowth, his expression silently telling him that he knew the cat's thoughts, and that he was wrong. "Jaime isn't going to forgive me on this one. She saw something before I even realized what it was. I've hurt her. I've hurt her more than I could ever think possible. I might as well have thrown her aside."
Lisa twitched. "Okay, but why me?"
He tapped the table again. "Jaime doesn't like contact. But when we first met you, she barely reacted to your touch at first."
The girl laughed once. "She just bent my wrist in an odd direction – so I think that part of the plan is shot."
James' jaw muscles visibly tensed, his teeth audibly grinding. Then he relaxed, tapping the table again. That's startin' to get annoyin'.
"You'll work."
Meowth's tail whipped side to side. "Look, James, just talk to her yo-"
Green eyes flashed and Meowth shut his mouth.
"I have a plan," this time he tapped the side of his head. "And for it to work, it has to be Lisa that talks to Jaime."
"Why?" Lisa was indignant. She wasn't about to let this go without an explanation. She wasn't willing to blindly follow orders.
"Jaime likes you," James said, gaining a look of disbelief from Lisa. "And as a girl, she won't be likely to bend more than your wrist in an odd direction."
You're really persuading the girl there, James.
To Meowth's surprise, Lisa nodded.
"What do we need Jaime for?" she asked.
The two looked at James, waiting.
He smiled.
"Here's the plan…"