The Jack, The Queen and Their Ace of Hearts - A Now You See Me FanFic

CHAPTER 10 : The Other Girls

"Congratulations..." is the first and only thing that Lula can softly and weakly manage to say in response to her husband's shocking announcement.

Then, as soon as she utters the only word she can muster up, she clutches at her stomach, covering her mouth with the back of her hand as she quickly gets up and races out of the room, fleeing from her husband. She looks like she could be sick.

After Lula leaves, Jack stays sitting on their bed for nearly ten minutes longer. He just sits there, shuffling through his deck of cards nervously, thinking about how much his life has changed since he woke up this morning; just from discovering that he has a son.

As he pockets the cards, Jack slowly stands up and slinks out of the bedroom, well and truly after Lula had.

"Hey, is Lula okay?" Danny asks from where he is sitting at the breakfast bar of their hideout, pausing from typing furiously on his laptop. "About ten minutes ago she came out looking-"

Jack interrupts Danny, not wanting to hear anymore about the pain that he had caused; after having already seen it firsthand.

"Not at the moment she's not. I'll tell you why in a minute" Jack replies succinctly, before calling out to the other two boys in the house. Merritt turns the corner and enters the living area from where he'd been pouring himself a drink, glass in tow. Within moments, Dylan too comes down from his room to where he's been summoned, and immediately the FBI agent inundates the younger man with questions.

"Hey... When did you get back, Jack? How'd the meet up go? Who was it? What did they want?"

Taking a seat on the lounge in the centre of the room, Jack looks around at the three other men who surround him. He's briefly distracted by worrying where Lula has gotten to since she left their room, but he focuses on the task at hand for the time being, knowing that she probably needs space more than she needs him right now.

"Holly Thompson. That's who I met up with."

After Jack's statement, he is met with three vague looks in his direction, as if they're supposed to know something and as if that name is supposed to mean something to them.

"The details are all a bit hazy to me. I must have been about 19 when I met her at a bar years ago. Anyway, she wanted to meet up to let me know that we have a kid."

The other three weren't quite prepared for how quickly Jack's explanation escalated, their jaws dropping instantly.

Consequently, an eerily strange silence fills the room as three of the men sit there, gobsmacked, while Jack just looks around the room at the result of his revelation.

"A kid...? Hell dude, that's heavy."

Dylan is the first to speak up, as Merritt just stands there wide-eyed taking a big gulp of his whiskey. Danny is the next to chime in.

"How sure are you that it's yours?"

"Well, I can't say that I remember her specifically, but everything that she said checked out. I was in Florida at the time she claims it happened and she said I treated her exactly the way that I treated every girl before Lula. She had a photo of us from the night too. We looked pretty wasted..."

Taking another sip of liquid, Merritt finally looks a little less than shell-shocked, asking his first question since the bomb was dropped.

"Son or daughter?"

"Son... His name's Billie."

Dylan and the other two Horsemen nod silently once again, still not completely over the shock of their latest discovery.

"Okay. Even if her story makes sense, you should still be DNA tested with him, regardless of how probable her story is. Something like this is too big to chance it."

There is a unanimous agreement in the room between the men who stay silent until all eyes fall on one girl as she enters the room.

"Ah, I think I have to make a phone call."

"Is that the time? I better get going."

"Yeah, I have that... thing."

After the flurry of excuses, Dylan, Danny and Merritt flee the room at the speed of light, leaving Jack and Lula at either end of the living area, eyes locked intently from one side of the room and the other.

There is so much more than just a few metres standing between the couple.

The happily married newlyweds barely had a care in the world just this morning. Yet, now there is suddenly so much insecurity, so much discomfort, so much that needs to be said and so much that needs to be done.

Finally, Jack breaks through the invisible -but no less real- barriers that separate them from each other, walking over and reaching her on the other side of the room as he wraps his arms around her in a big, supportive, comforting hug.

The couple stays glued together in the hug for as long as they can, knowing that as soon as they separate, they will have to start facing the new reality that has been thrust in front of them.

"I'm so sorry, Lula" Jack whispers into her hair, pressing a kiss to the top of her head just before the two finally begin to separate and pull apart from each other.

"What's his name? What's your son's name? And hers?"

Lula asks, speaking clearly and slowly. It's like she needs to verbalise aloud to try and make it real for herself.

"Billie. His mother's name's Holly."

Lula flinches at her husband's words as though they literally sting her physically and not just emotionally.

"What is she like? How did you meet? Were you together for long? Was it serious?"

Looking down at Lula before he speaks, Jack notices the moisture that is welling and threatening to erupt from her reddened, tear-infested eyes. Before he has a chance to reply, she asks the final question that she wants to know more than any other.

"Did you love her?"

He grabs her hand from where it is hanging loosely beside her and he clutches it, squeezing her petite hand comfortingly first before he even tries to explain the situation.

"It was a fling... just a one-night-stand. I didn't know her, let alone love her. Honestly, I barely remember her. Apparently we met at a bar one night while I'd been travelling the country doing street magic, like a vagabond. I've told you -and only you- what I was, regrettably, like with women in the past. I was awful. I stole their trust and their wallets, Holly was no different, but I just didn't expect to get something back in return..."

Jack doesn't know what he'd been expecting. Maybe he'd hoped that reassuring Lula of how different she was to all of the other girls she'd feel happy, she'd feel relieved. She'd suddenly uncover a big positive of their situation and things would almost be back to normal. But, it doesn't change a thing.

He looks down at her and he feels even worse for doing so. Lula looks pale, washed out, exhausted. And it's all because of him.

"Jack. Right now, I don't know what to think or how to feel. But, I do know that I want to meet them."

Thanks for hanging around, readers. I'm sorry that this chapter is up later than I had planned for it to be. I haven't been well and I've been busier than usual, so updates (well, editing) kept getting pushed back. I hope that the next installment will be up sooner for you all!

Now it's not looking too flash for our babies at the moment, but bear in mind that it is a Jack and Lula romance fic...

Next chapter: Jack and Lula meet Billie and Lula meets Holly. Will meeting Jack's instant family bring her peace or only more pain?