Bea and Oscar 9
"I'm just going to come out and say it ..." Bea started and trailed off. She was nervous. She wasn't sure how to express her feelings. She was really unsure of the responses she would get. She didn't know whose response concerned her more, Alex's or Henry's.
"Bea and I ...we've been ..." Oscar begun and Henry winced at the grip of Alex's hand in his.
"Oscar if you tell me, you've been having sex with my sister, I am going to kick you in the balls." Henry threatened him.
Alex's hand in his was like a vice. his grip was so tight, Henry could swear his boyfriend was cutting off his circulation to his fingers. "Bea?" Alex asked, keeping his voice neutral, which was talking every ounce of restraint he had in him.
"We're not sleeping together." Oscar announced, trying to reassure Henry. He hadn't expected Henry's threat. He had expected Alex's anger, but it hadn't come yet. But he knew it was coming. He could see how tight his son was gripping Henry's hand.
"Yet." Bea added, and you could have heard a pin drop.
"What. The. Fuck?" Alex asked. His voice was high-pitched, in an almost squeal like voice. It was not a tone of joy, or of happiness. It was truly a state of shock. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Alex wanted to take them back. But he couldn't. They were already out there, and he hated himself instantly for it.
Henry had managed to release Alex's hand from his, in fear of Alex snapping his fingers off. "I am afraid I agree with Alex, what the hell? Bea?" Henry asked. Bea and Oscar's bombshell had definitely caught both of them off guard. Henry was willing himself to remain calm because one of them had to and in Alex's case, that ship had sailed.
Oscar's fingers had now interlaced with Bea's. "Could you kindly remove your hand all the fuck away from Bea's before I break your fucking fingers." Alex snapped at his father. It was something that he had never thought he would ever have to say to his father. Sure, he and Oscar'd had their differences since the divorce, but since he and Henry had gotten together, they had been working through them. Slowly but surely. "She's too fucking good for you." Alex's self-control was hanging on by a thread and honestly, Henry was worried for him. He had never seen Alex get this angry, this quickly.
"Mijo." Oscar's voice was a warning, but he could see nothing but ice-cold fury running through his son's veins. Oscar's warning tone was one that Alex could have easily recognised from his youth. If only Oscar had been around him to actually be a parent to him. But no, he had taken off and lived his life in California, only bothering with them on campaign trails or when June needed something. In Oscar's eyes, Alex was always the invisible child. Until now.
Now it was the undeniable guilt of the past that hung between him and Alex. It was the tension that had always been there. It had been better for a little bit when he was in high school, but it had come roaring back when he started college. At the time, Oscar had put it down to the changes that were going on in his life. Ellen and Leo getting married, Ellen running for office. His re-election bid. Raf's re-election bid. Alex starting a new chapter in his life. Losing Liam as a friend when his high school days had ended. Oscar hadn't exactly been there for Alex, so of course Alex wasn't going to take his warning seriously.
"It's ok, love." Bea murmured, letting go of his fingers, but keeping her pinky against his, as she perched on the arm of the chair, he was sitting in. "In all fairness, I did warn you that Alex is protective of me."
"Mijo?" Oscar tried again, trying to get Alex to express something other than what he had already said. Henry was being suspiciously quiet and that too scared him. More than Alex did, if he was perfectly honest with himself. At least Alex was expressing himself. henry was sitting there mostly quiet. It was a truth universally known that it was the quiet ones you had to watch out for. "Mijo, just listen for a moment."
"No, Pa. Have you lost your damn mind?" Alex snapped out loud, spitting the words out and Henry placed a comforting hand on Alex's thigh. "She's Henry's sister. She is like a sister to me. She is also my friend. No, she is more than just my friend, she is a sister to me, in every way that fucking matters. This is not cool."
"Bea?" Henry tried, he was struggling to keep his voice was calm and cool. Very much not like Alex. He had wanted to take a moment and curb his shock. He couldn't afford to rapid fire his anger out. Besides, Alex was mad as a wet hen, and mad enough for the both of them. "What's going on?"
"We have been spending some time together, Hen. Texting each other when we're apart." She smiled over at Oscar, before giving Henry a love-sick like grin. "Hen, he just gets me. Gets me in a way that no one else ever has before."
"I see." Henry answered, noncommittedly. He was worried about Alex. He was practically vibrating with anger. His anger was on a hairpin trigger, and he had not yet begun to truly explode.
"Nothing has happened yet, Henry." Oscar reiterated. "As much as we both want something to happen; we haven't done anything."
"We love and respect you both too much, not to talk about it with you first. Both of you." Bea added softly. Alex seemed to loosen his whole body, slightly. "Alex? Honey, I am worried you're terribly angry at me."
"Bea, I love you. You're another sister and one of the best people, I know." Alex said softly and calmly. Henry knew he was far from the calm he was projecting. Alex would never get mad at Bea to the point of yelling. "But I am going to need a moment."
He got up out of Henry's orbit, pressed his lips to Bea's forehead. She could see his unshed tears and her eyes watered. Before they could register anything else, Alex was stomping down the hall to his office. He was swearing and cursing Oscar, loudly in Spanish. "puto gilipollas" (asshole) "Joder!" (fuck) "cabrón" (motherfiucker) "qué coño soy¿Qué voy a hacer ahora? ¡joder! ¡No puedo casarme con Henry ahora! Papá está demasiado ocupado follando con su hermana." (What the fuck am I going to do now? fuck! can't marry Henry now! Pa's too busy fucking his sister.) Could be heard as he made his way down the hallway to his office.
The slamming of Alex's office door reverberated through the house, leaving Henry alone with Bea and Oscar. "Alex is mad." Bea sighed, mostly to herself.
"Can't say I blame him, exactly." Henry muttered, mostly to himself. "Bea ... you are privy to certain information. Information that had I known you wanted to date his father, would not be happening."
Henry's words were cryptic and honestly, his tone was just to Oscar. Since their father died, it had been Henry watching over Bea. They were close. "We're not trying to come between the two of you." Oscar tried to explain to Henry. "You and Alex are your own couple."
"Oh Hen, nothing is stopping those plans." Bea answered her brother. "Oscar and I, we feel there's something there between us. We owe it to one another to find out what that is. To explore these feelings. This is different than what I have ever felt before."
"She is right, Mijo." Oscar said, taking Bea's hand tentatively. "There's something between us, it's hard to understand. We just know that we want to explore it. See where it goes."
"Oscar, you don't understand." Henry sighed; he was tired. He's had a long day, and he was really worried about Alex. Alex had not taken the news well. He had wanted to do nothing more than comfort him. "Bea is my sister, she is everything to me."
"Mijo, I understand more than you realise." Oscar whispered to him. "I have an older sister, myself. The guys she married was an asshole. When they got together, he took her from me. He moved her away from our family when they got married. When I needed my sister the most, she wasn't there to love and support me. She couldn't be there for me. He controlled her every move, and he treated her poorly. Bea's ex-boyfriend treated her poorly too. All I can promise you Mijo, is that I will never do anything to hurt her. I will not disrespect her. I will not control her, gaslight her or manipulate her. I will cherish her, respect her. I will keep her safe and care for her. If it turns out there is feelings between us, I will love her wholly and unconditionally. If there isn't I promise you she will still have my unwavering respect and admiration."
"Oscar." Bea sighed and her expression softened. Henry wanted Bea to be happy, he truly did. But not at the expense of his own happiness.
"If you've got something you want to say, how about you say it to my face? Instead of storming off like a fucking kid." Oscar snapped, letting himself into Alex's office. "You're an adult, Alex. Fucking behave like it."
"¿Se te pasó por la cabeza que no estaría de acuerdo con esto? ¿Que Henry no estaría de acuerdo con esto?" (Did it at all cross your mind that I wouldn't be ok with this? That Henry wouldn't be ok with this?) Alex snapped in retaliation. He was all keyed up and fuming mad. "Bea se está follando a la hermana de Hen. ¡Es nuestro trabajo protegerla!" (Bea's fucking Hen's sister. It's our job to protect her!)
"Bea es una mujer adulta y puede tomarla de sí misma." (Bea is a grown woman and she can take her of herself.) Oscar replied, slamming the door behind him so they could talk in private and keep having it out in Spanish. "You don't get to dictate who Bea starts a relationship with. Frankly, I didn't want to tell you because I didn't think you could handle it. But Bea, she was the one who wanted to be honest with you."
"Don't you see it?" Alex hissed at him, keeping his tone angry and low. he didn't want his voice to carry back to Hen and Bea. "This is Sarah, all over again."
Oscar felt his legs briefly give out unceremoniously. He didn't know that Alex knew about Sarah. Sarah had been a woman he'd had a causal, very casual relationship with, not too long after Ellen had been made the presidential candidate for a run at the White House. Sarah had been younger than him. Sarah had been the same age as Bea, and she had been June's colleague, but Alex's roommate and friend. She was a political journalist and they had met after Oscar had helped her jumpstart her car, in the carpark one day.
"I didn't know you knew about her." Oscar admitted in a whisper. "Does CJ know too?"
"No." Alex replied. "Sarah didn't tell me either." Alex hastily added. "I just ... knew. Ok?"
"No, it's not ok. What the hell do you mean, 'you just knew'?"
"You sent her flowers, ok?" Alex snapped. "To our fucking apartment. Sarah wasn't home, I signed for them. I saw your name and the message written on the consignment sheet from the florist. You thanked her for 'everything last night'. Fuck Pa, she came home, and her neck was littered with hickeys. She refused to tell me, and we told each other everything. She couldn't look me in the eye. When things ended between you two, she ended our friendship. Without explanation too. She up and moved out while I was at school one day. I lost my friend because you were fucking her, and it ended. I don't want to lose Bea."
"I am sorry, Alex." Oscar said, remorsefully. He had felt guilty the time that he and Sarah had been together. He knew that Sarah had moved on, Alex had mentioned it in passing at the time. but he hadn't realised she had ended their friendship and left without a word.
"Only reason I knew she was ok, was because I called her mom and asked. I was fucking worried about her, despite how hurt I was." Alex explained, his tone becoming terse, rather than tense. "She reamed me out for your actions, before warning me to never contact her daughter again."
"Alex - "
"Don't!" Alex cut his father off. He couldn't bear to hear whatever shitty excuse his father was going to give him. "Bea is important to me. Just like CJ is. She is my sister, in all the ways that matter. Before that, we were friends."
"I know she is, Mijo." Oscar sighed. He could see how much Alex loved Bea. Alex took a seat behind his desk and opened the locked bottom drawer. He tossed his father a small black, velvet box. Oscar caught it deftly, one handed. "What's this?"
"Open it." Alex snapped, angrily. He turned away from his father's scrutinising glance. He didn't want his dad to see his heartbreak right before his eyes. The thing that no one but Alex had understood was, his heart literally broke in two at their words. Henry could never be his, as long as Bea and his father were a couple. Alex felt like he was alone. He was the only one who realised that this was the end of the road for he and Henry. He couldn't be in love with the brother of the woman his father was seeing. "Pa, you and Bea are both adults, and I can't stop you."
"Oh Mijo," Oscar cried softly. Looking down he saw the beautiful yellow gold band with a geometric pattern on it and seven small diamonds embedded into it. "It's beautiful. Henry is going to love it."
"I was going to ask him to marry me." Alex admitted softly. "It's going back tomorrow. Can't exactly do that if you're going to date Bea."
