Jack and Allie (Part 2)
The first thing Jack saw when he woke up was a bright light - almost too bright, to be exact. For a moment he simply closed his eyes and tried to sleep again; and then something hit his brain like a freight train and caused his eyes to snap open again.
"Am I dead?!" He blurted out, terrified as he tried to take in his surroundings.
"No," A voice told him to his left. "But when I'm done with you, you'll wish that were!"
Something - someone - punched his shoulder, and as his eyes adjusted he recognized the bright red hair of Lucy - and she did not look happy at all, standing there with her arms crossed and glaring at him.
He sent her a confused look. "What?"
"You are a giant moron!" Lucy seethed, shaking her head at him. "You scared the crap out of us - all of us! Mom and Dad started up a fight when they found you, Mina has locked herself in her room with that weird boyfriend of hers, and me..." She blinked, and Jack realized that her eyes were filled with tears. "You promised that you would stop drinking, Jack. Everything was going so well..."
And then he remembered, and it felt like someone had dunked him in icy cold water.
"I'm sorry," He mumbled, knowing that it wouldn't help but going ahead with it anyway. "I was just...I freaked out, and I was thinking too much and...and..."
Lucy gave a sigh. "Don't tell me, Jack; tell Mom and Dad. They'll be back later to talk to you about it, so you need to save your words. I'm just confused as to why you seemed happy enough before; I mean, you were going out on a date with that girl, right? Did it go wrong?"
Jack looked down at his lap. "Not exactly. At least, she was great - more than great - but I was...I think I ruined it by running away."
"No kidding," Lucy snapped. "What the heck could have made you do what you did?"
He couldn't help the fire that flared up inside of him. "I'm so sorry, Lucy, that unlike the rest of you, I still haven't gotten past the fact that our little sister died!"
Lucy looked aghast. "None of us have, Jack, not really. But we get on with our lives because there's no point in staying sad about it. Lily wouldn't have wanted that - and you know it." She put a tender hand on his shoulder hesitantly. "I'm not the one you should be talking to about this, Jack; Mom and Dad are. If it's really still affecting you that badly, then they're the ones you need to speak to. Not me."
The truth was, he didn't want to speak to his Mom or Dad about it; for one, he wasn't sure if it would upset them if he talked about it. Secondly, he was somewhat embarrassed to admit that, after all these years, he still hadn't fully recovered from their sister dying prematurely; guys just weren't meant to feel like that.
Then again, his dad was pretty open about feeling sad; he hadn't tried to hide it, not ever in Jack's life had he seen his father hiding it, so maybe Johnny would listen and understand. And his Mom...well, she was pretty cool too, and she was bound to know exactly how he was feeling or what to do; he could trust her with anything, knowing she wouldn't tell. He immediately felt better about the idea.
His parents would understand - he could do this.
"I do rather worry for him. He was always so smart, but then he got old enough to drink and...well..." Mina bit her lip as she stopped pacing, trying her very best not to cry.
Gomez, who had been watching and listening patiently like a small child, cleared his throat. "It's not your fault that he acts in such a way, darling. Don't blame yourself. Besides, I have no doubts that your brother will be able to sort himself out - he seems like a very smart man."
"It's not that I'm worried about...I'm not worried at all!" Mina protested. "I just...I can't believe what he's done to himself. I mean, Jack was so clever that he could have done anything in the world that he wanted to: he could have been a scholar or something!...Hell, he could have even gotten onto the Monster Council, I bet, and he threw it all away so that he could drink himself stupid!"
Her boyfriend stood, putting his hands on her shoulders; he towered above her because she was so small, and yet he was not intimidating. "Don't get yourself all worked up over this, Mina; he probably has a lot of things he has to sort out before he can properly live."
"You mean Lily?" She asked, the name like poison on her tongue; he knew she didn't like to talk about her younger sister, though it was out of grief and not hate that she hated talking about her. "That was years ago. He needs to get over it."
"You don't mean that," Gomez said slowly, and his gaze burned into her. "You all loved her; you can't just 'get over' it."
"What do you know?!" Mina spat, pulling away from him in an attempt to hide her tears. "You weren't there! You don't know anything about what happened, what it was like; all you know is stupid romantic Italian phrases and how to use your money to get what you want!"
Gomez bristled at this. "You're not thinking straight, Mina. Stop before you say something you regret." He had to take a deep breath to calm down, pinching his nose. "Look, you're right in saying that I wasn't there - and I don't wish to have been - but I understand what it's like to lose someone you love."
"Yeah right!" She drawled, rolling her eyes. "Who have you lost?!"
"My older brother!" He snapped harshly, and Mina's eyes widened. "I was only young - I barely had my fangs - and my brother disappeared one day. We never found him, you know, but we heard rumours from the locals; that he'd been taken by humans, that he might have got caught out in sunlight...we'll never know. At least you know what happened to your sister - I'll never know what happened to him, not unless a miracle happens."
Mina had gone very quiet - and then suddenly she burst into tears.
Gomez, alarmed, took her into his arms. "Mina! Look, I'm sorry for shouting-"
"No," She managed tearfully. "It's just...I don't talk about her because it hurts," She admitted. "I...I was thirty-one when she was born, a-a-and for about seven years I could always pretend...when she was a baby I could pretend that she was a normal monster baby; when she was five and we looked the same, I could pretend that m-maybe we were twins, and I was still the older one. But then she got older and older...and when she got to be an actual grown-up, I didn't look any different than I had eighteen years before...so then I had to pretend that I was actually the youngest again, even though I knew I wasn't..."
Gomez could only listen, astounded by her outburst; she had never spoken about it before, not in all the time he knew her, and he knew it to be a big step.
"I had to put up with so much, you know," Mina continued. "We were play-mates for ten years, running around and exploring the hotel because we could, because we were partners in crime. When Lucy and Freddie told everyone that they were having Charlie, I was the one who had to comfort Lily because no one else seemed to have the guts to say anything to her...I was only in my sixties, and I had to comfort my little sister because she couldn't have a baby; I didn't even understand the whole mechanics behind babies, let alone not being able to have them, and yet it was me who had to talk to her about it. And then, when she got old and the Alzheimer's came along..." She paused, biting her lip tearfully. "She couldn't remember who I was; she took one look at me and suddenly became terrified because I was a stranger who she felt could have hurt her. She didn't even remember me on her good days; she remembered Damien and Sam, and Mom and Dad...even Grandpa Drac at one point...but not me. It's like I didn't even matter."
"You did," Gomez told her firmly, his hold on her tightening. "You all did, I'm sure. But her brain wasn't healthy when it happened, and that's why she only remembered some people; if there's an afterlife then I'm sure when she got there she remembered everything clearly, especially all that you did for her."
Deep down, he secretly thanked her for trusting him this much - he could tell her aloud later. Now, though, was the time to focus on comforting her as she let it all out.
In the end, Jack was so glad he chose to tell his parents about it - and then came the shock he hadn't been expecting.
"I...I get what it's like," Johnny told him quietly, and he suddenly looked a lot sadder. "I lost all of my brothers a long time ago."
Jack nodded. "Yeah, I know. You told me."
"My younger brother, Jake...umm..." Johnny looked at Mavis, who just squeezed his hand encouragingly. "Well...he died just before Lucy turned thirteen."
"Hang on," Jack interrupted, quickly working out the numbers in his head. "But he would have only been...how...I mean..."
His dad - who usually always looked so happy-go-lucky - was frowning thoughtfully. "He got beaten up by a gang while he was out one night. The guys who did it, well...the cops never caught them, which totally sucks."
"Why did they beat him up?" Jack wondered quietly, and he immediately regretted asking in case it caused too much pain.
"He was out with Will, his...his boyfriend."
Oh.
Johnny chuckled half-heartedly at the shocked look on his son's face. "That was my reaction when he first came out, you know. Never expected it, but he seemed a lot happier once everyone knew so I can't complain." He sighed. "I was in a total funk for weeks...months...and it would have been years too, if we hadn't found out you were gonna be turning up."
Jack had to try very hard not to let his mouth fall open. "No way!"
"Yeah way!" Johnny laughed quietly. "You were a total surprise - but a cool one," He added hurriedly at Mavis' look.
Mavis put an arm on Jack's shoulder. "We kinda named you after him, you know...we thought that naming you 'Jake' outright would have been too...too..."
"Corny?" Johnny supplied. "That, and it seemed kinda unfair to make you try and live up to him because of it."
Mavis nodded. "Yes, so we agreed to go with something similar...'Jack'. It seemed like a nice way to remember him."
"So...are you saying I should pop out a kid and name it after my sister?" Jack questioned, head still swimming with all of the new information in his head.
She rolled her eyes at him. "No, you're missing the point here: what we're trying to say is that we understand how you feel in more ways than one. We know that you don't want to upset us, but we're honestly open if you want to talk about it."
"Yeah," Johnny agreed. "And if you want to pop out a kid as well, then you go ahead."
It was clear by the look on Mavis' face that sometimes she wondered what on earth kind of family she'd gotten herself into.
Meanwhile, in his mind, Jack knew he had one more person he had to talk to: Allie. It was only right, considering what he'd done to her during their date (was it a date?), to explain everything to her - she deserved an explanation. If she hated him after that...well, that was her decision - and he thought she would be fully within her right to hate him after ruining the evening. But it was worth a shot, right?
It took over an hour to explain everything to her; sat in a private, quiet room of the hotel, he told her that he'd had another sister who had been born human - that Lily had only lived for eighty-five years, aging terribly quickly and surpassing even their grandfather. He told her about how close they had been, about how he'd taken care of Lily's adopted daughter, Sam, when she and her husband Damien couldn't. Jack made sure to explain why the mention of Alice in Wonderland made him freak out - and he finally admitted that he'd been an alcoholic for years because of everything that had happened.
"I...I am so sorry," Allie said quietly when he'd finished. "I thought that you didn't like me or something, as silly and trivial as that sounds." She sighed. "Losing your sister really hurt. The thing is...I completely understand what you're going through."
Jack was surprised. "Oh? How?"
Allie suddenly looked extremely upset, making Jack momentarily wonder if he should have said anything. "When I was seventy-five, my family all died in a fire: I woke up one night, and...there was smoke everywhere. I called out for my parents, but all I could hear was their yelling and coughing...I think at one point my dad told me to get out before it was too late, and I jumped out of the window without thinking. I was so...so freaked out and panicked that I couldn't change into a bat, and I hit the ground really hard. I woke up in hospital the next day, and...and I was under intensive care for a year." She bit her lip and lowered her head. "They thought I started the fire; I was the only survivor, you see, and they couldn't figure out if I'd done it by accident or on purpose."
Jack was astounded by this. "Wow...I'm...But...you didn't start the fire, right?"
Her green eyes blazed slightly as she looked up at him. "Of course not! For a long time I thought I had, but then I started to think about it properly; I was in bed before anyone else that day, and I was too afraid to touch the candles or matches. My dad must have left one lit or something before he went to sleep." She folded her arms across her stomach, suddenly looking tiny. "I've been on medication since then, and I got so sick of everyone thinking I had done it...I got sick of having survivor's guilt. So I overdosed and downed it with a bottle of witches brew...and here I am."
"I guess we've both got skeletons in our closets then," Jack mumbled.
Allie smiled ruefully. "Yes. I suppose we do."
"I can understand if you never want to see me again," He continued miserably. "I treated you like crap on that date. You deserve so much better than that - you're so wonderful and interesting, and I just ruined everything."
"You didn't," Allie assured him quietly, and then her hand slid into his. "And I do want to see you again - whenever you want to, we'll go out for dinner or something and just talk. I really like you, Jack."
Maybe things were starting to look up for him, Jack thought. Being happy didn't mean that he was forgetting - it just meant that he was learning to live with the bad feelings, putting it away so that he could get on with life.
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