We're BACK! If you didn't hit up Bloodlines, I think you might have too. When stars-7 rolls around you're gonna be lost... ;)
S*t*a*r*s – 5
Free Fall
JG Marie
9-26-02
Wicked rhythms
Dancing in my mind
Thumping away
Driving me closer
To the inviting edge
Prepare to plummet
Into the endless void
Whipping me around
Tussling my hair
Boggling my mind
Heart on the verge of exploding
Brain ready to blow
Body tossed into a perpetual frenzy
Wicked rhythms
Dancing in my mind
The beat steps up
Ebony abyss
Wraps its cold arms around me
Becoming my eternal dwelling
Two legs. That is the first thing that Jo has to get used to. Spencer having two good functioning legs. The second is that this Spencer is content with having a relationship with her. Another oddity. Jo sits at her desk at the detective agency while Spencer is sleeping on her couch. There is a week before school starts and Spencer, Abby, Tegan, Rylee and Sydney are going off on a hiking adventure in Maine. One of Abby’s goals, they had played a game, Spencer has told her, and one of Abby’s lifelong goals was to hike Mount Katadin in Maine. And so they are going. No parents, just tents, fishing line, digital cameras and a good time. They have all pledged that during vacations and long weekends they will all work on their to-do list.
Spencer decided to spend her last day before flying to Maine with Jo, but Jo is working so Spencer is snoring on her couch until she, Jo and Bev have dinner later. Spencer has been able to play off her memory loss with Bev, but for some reason, Bev’s daughter, Angelica saw right through the façade.
Jo keeps looking up and staring at Spencer. She looks remarkably like the same girl from weeks before, the hair is longer, blonder, more Amy like. Her eyes are now more like Jo’s were as a child, steel blue with flecks of green. And two legs. All the while that Spencer had been here before, she’d been energy. Now, she was whole. Her whole perception, Spencer’s body had been what had been in her mind.
On her right hand ring finger rests the Ring of Bonding. No one had ever known she’d had those, it was a relic she’d found during her time in Susan’s company. Jon had the other vestiges of her grandfather’s artifacts. Jo kept that information to herself. As Jon wasn’t about to allow anyone to have them. No one knew that she’d given one to Amy, the one that Rylee now wears, and had worn it herself until she’d mashed it to a pulp six years after Spencer was born. The ring is whole again, as is Spencer.
“Please quit staring at me?” mutters Spencer creeping an eye open. She smiles and rolls onto her side. “What case are you working on?”
“Just billing,” sighs Jo. “Since I’m back with the FBI I never seem to have time for this part of my life. So are you sure about this – this – mountain climbing thing?”
Spencer shrugs, her eyebrows move up and her lips curl into a smirk. “Honestly?”
Jo laughs, nods, and says, “Oui.”
Spencer swings her legs off the couch and she props her elbows on her knees. “I might like it. It sound so normal, you know?”
“We went camping once, the set of mothers that is,” says Jo. She gets out of her chair, sits on the corner of the desk. “Well, everyone other than Shelby, she wasn’t in the fold just yet at that time.”
“How did that go?” asks Spencer. She leans in to listen. Her mother’s voice takes on that French accent she hides so well at times.
“Badly.”
“Why?” asks Spencer not sure she wants to know. Yet, there are so many things she doesn’t know about her mother that questions just seem natural. Her own memories are odd, almost fragile. She calls them up, remembers the feelings but the events are still pale shadows of the things she now experiences.
“Well, unlike you and Rylee, Amy and I were not so courageous about our – um – relationship.”
Spencer makes a face. “Really? Because you’re all out and about now, really?”
“Really. We hid it, we’d sneak off to be alone, have sex, make out, and then pretend it wasn’t happening. It was a different time, in society that is. But we had this stupid idea that it would drive us apart, as friends,” said Jo. “We ended up trading blows in a river. Black eyes, busted noses, it wasn’t fun.”
“No,” says Spencer trying to hide the smile behind a cupped hand. “No, really? You guys fought? With or without powers?”
“No powers, they didn’t know about them at the time,” smirks Jo. “And that brings me to a conversation I wanted to have with you.”
Spencer groans, falls back onto the couch and covers her ears. “Oh no! Is this the sex talk? Mom! It happened and I don’t want to talk about. Please? Don’t do this to me.”
Jo gets up and sits next to Spencer. “Hey, you don’t have all of your memory back yet and as much as what happened happened, I’d like to know that you’re being, well, thoughtful about what you’re doing. So can I be a mom for five minutes?”
Spencer looks at her watch and says, “Go.”
Jo reaches over and covers the watch and says, “I cannot believe I’m saying this. I was ready for the condom speech, Spence. Not the lesbian speech, not ready for either speech, I’m lying. No sex, I’m not ready for you to have sex.”
“At least I won’t be coming home knocked up,” replies Spencer. “I’m not ready for sex again, not yet, not now, we got caught up in the moment, Mom.” Her face is serious and she eases away from Jo. “I’m not ready for it to be an all the time thing and school is starting and Natalie made it abundantly clear that our asses are not to be doing the horizontal bop on campus.” Spencer pauses. “She still cheated on me. I know I died for her, but, she cheated on me. I’m still mad about it sometimes.”
Jo bites her lower lip. “Okay.”
“I love her,” says Spencer shyly. Does she ever love her, this Spencer is sure of there is no way to explain how she knows, and what she feels that Rylee is that girl for her, or rather, that person. “I just don’t remember all the reasons why I love her. I need to get to know her, again. It’s better but I’m not me just yet. I’m enjoying the getting to know her part.”
Jo nods, how their relationship mirrors hers and Amy’s in many ways. “That sounds familiar.”
Spencer turns her head and looks at her mother. “Huh?”
Jo leans back and settles into the cushions of the couch. “It’s the reason that when you saved me from that cave I didn’t jump back into a relationship with Amy. Even though that’s what she wanted instantly, and I did to, in a very basic way, I wanted to fall into her arms.”
Spencer clears her throat. She’d never thought about why her mother wasn’t with Amy, she just figured Jo didn’t love her anymore. Now, Jo is telling her that she does love her. “Mom, about Amy.”
“Oh god, what did she do now?” asks Jo. Her voice raising slightly. “Is she threatening to take Tegan out of school? What, tell me.”
Spencer looks up at the ceiling. She’s been trying to figure out how to say this to Jo for the last few days. But the time hasn’t been right. They’d been at Bev’s place and that wasn’t the place to drop this bomb on Jo. Spencer needed a place that if Jo freaked out it would be safe. They were only a few dozen stories up. This was as safe as it would get. She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, running the millions of ways to say this. “I know who my dad is!” blurts out Spencer, her eyes squeezed shut.
Silence.
“Mom?” says Spencer prying her eyes open to see Jo sitting there, shaking her head. A look of utter amusement plays on her face.
“How long have you known?” asks Jo. She is amazed at her daughter once again, she has figured something out that no one else has.
“Huh?”
“How long?” asks Jo again.
“Since a few weeks into the 1st semester at HIA. Wait, you knew?” asks Spencer loudly. She stands up and stares hard at Jo. “Mom? You’ve known all this time that Amy’s alter was my father?”
“I’ve always known,” says Jo. She looks at Spencer’s ring finger, she remembers making that decision to give it to Amy, to make sure Amy lived for as long as she did. “I’ve known since the moment I came back. I only have one soul mate, Spence, and that’s Amy Astin. If I was in another reality and there was the equivalent to Amy that is who I was with.” There is a longing in Jo’s voice that captures Spencer’s heart and holds it tight, the beats doubling.
“Mom, then – I don’t understand,” stammers Spencer. Her voice takes on a hot desperation. “Why? Why won’t you be with her? Why do you stay with Bev if you love Amy? How can you stay away from her? It doesn’t make sense because I can’t not love Rylee.”
“I love Bev, Spencer. I do in a very different way than how I love Amy. I’m not the same person as I was in high school and neither is Amy, we need time to get to know one another again,” says Jo. “We’re moms, we’re business women, we’re older.”
Spencer swallows and realizes that she’s on the verge of tears, a new emotion, something she’s never really allowed herself to feel. “So my parents aren’t going to date anytime soon.”
Jo lets out a barking laugh. “No. No, not for a while, are you okay with this? With having two moms? Your life has already been so crazy and it’s all the things I wanted to protect you from.”
“You’ve noticed that Angelica has two moms? I think I can handle it,” snorts Spencer. “There are a few other things I remember too. I remember you being crazy, you being insane with hunting these people, but when we plucked you out of that cave, you were all – sane.”
Jo makes a face, taps her watch and says, “We need to get going to HIA but I can explain that too, come on. I want to talk to Jay about everything that went down.”
Spencer shrugs and follows her mother out of the office, she reaches out with her power and pulls the door closed.
“How did you do that?” asks Jo. “Did you tap into Amy’s ability?”
“Energy, there is a lot I have to tell you too,” says Spencer. “Come on, I’m driving.”
“The hell you are,” laughs Jo. “My car, my ass behind the wheel.”
Spencer pouts as they get into the elevator. “But I’m an excellent driver.”
s*t*a*r*s/J*A*D*E*S
“Tegan, Tegan, are you done packing?” asks Amy. She walks into her daughter’s room, knocks lightly and enters. She’s greeted with Tegan and Matt making out on the bed. “HEY!”
“Shit,” yells Tegan, rolling off Matt and wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. “MOM!”
Amy covers her eyes and says, “Matt I think you should put your shirt on.”
“Um, er, yes Ma’am.”
“Don’t call me ma’am!” snaps Amy. She steps out of the room, presses her back to the wall and stifles a laugh. “Now!”
Matt scampers around the room finding his shirt and struggling into it. “I thought she was out?” he whispers.
“She was,” whispers Tegan. She looks around to find her bra, and she can’t seem to find it. “Mom, you should knock.”
“You shouldn’t be half naked, you’re sixteen, Tegan Larkin! And I did knock. You were too busy finding Matt’s tonsils to hear me!”
“You were way younger and having sex, with women, I might add,” mutters Tegan. “He’s got his shirt on.”
Matt’s eyebrows shoot up. “Really?”
“And I heard that,” says Amy stepping back into the room. “I was having sex when I was younger than you, and I kept condoms in my pockets and shoes, can Matt say the same?”
Matt’s face burns a bright red, his blue eyes dart left to right. “No, I don’t have – um – a condom – err – see – I, oh boy. See, I won’t be having sex with Tegan, M..Mrs. Larkin.”
“Astin,” growls Amy.
Matt shakes his head and says, “I’m going to be a virgin on my wedding night so unless Tegan is ready to exchange rings…”
“I’m not!” snaps Tegan. “You want to be a virgin? Really? I thought you were kidding about that! No, no, really? That is nuts, I won’t buy a car before I test drive it, no way!”
“Tegan,” says Amy, crossing her arms, she lets her lips curl into a smile. “You can keep him.”
Tegan stammers and mutters. “B-b-b-but… I have to pack!”
Amy walks out of the room and giggles hard. Leave it to her daughter to pick a boy who wants to stay a virgin. How long will that last, Amy wonders.
s*t*a*r*s/J*A*D*E*S
“I have the maps,” says Abby for the twentieth time. “I have everything, really, I have it all, stop harping.”
Darci makes a face. They are driving to the Island so that Sydney can teleport them to Maine to hike that states tallest mountain. “It’s a mile up.”
“Nope, misses it by thirteen feet,” answers Abby.
“Smart ass,” says Darci as she merges into another lane. “Natalie said she wants you to ease up on using your powers while you’re up there? She say why?”
Abby grunts. “Yeah, and I have to agree with her. We rely on them, we have to develop our other talents. Like starting a fire,” she says with a smile.
“Interesting,” says Darci. “I agree, but if something goes wrong?”
“Yeah,” says Abby reaching over and changing the radio station.
“Do whatever you need to do,” says Darci, “to protect your friends and yourself.”
“I can change your tires to water?” says Abby. Darci shoots her a look. “I’m kidding.”
“You’re not Sydney Doyle who can snap us out of this car at a blink of an eye.”
“I know, my power sucks,” says Abby. She plays with her always present silver dollar, rolling it over her knuckles with a long sigh.
“I can’t do anything active, the brakes let out you can use the air to slow us down, so you can’t say it sucks. Mine sucks.”
“Point taken,” smiles Abby.
Darci grunts. “Thanks kid.”
s*t*a*r*s/J*A*D*E*S
“No sex,” says Mario. His voice serious yet there is a glimmer of a smile on his lips.
“I know!” says Rylee. “We’re working on things and it’s slow so don’t think I’ll be jumping into her sleeping bag, okay?”
Emma tosses the sleeping back in question into the back of the SUV. She meets Mario’s gaze and they share a smile. “That’s not what we are saying.”
“Yes, yes it is what I’m saying,” says Mario. “Now, I’ve seen Jo Wheaton in action and she can charm the pant off well just about anyone. And if Spencer is anything like Jo, then I’m sure she can charm you into a sleeping bag.”
“She’s not Jo!” snaps Rylee. “And I’m not Amy, so if you guys can quit the comparison? It happened once, just once, a glorious once, but – we agreed to take things really slow.” Rylee kicks at the dirt. “Really, really glorious one time,” she mutters.
“You are your mother’s daughter,” snorts Mario. Her straps the climbing rope to the back of Rylee’s backpack.
“Hey!” says Emma, snatching the sleeping bag from the back of the SUV and hits Mario with it. “Shut up, I mean it, Mario Scott.”
Rylee narrows her eyes, her brow furrows in thought. “Wait. I’m my mother’s daughter.” She mulls this over as Emma swats Mario with the sleeping bag, both of them laughing, Mario grabbing at Emma but missing. She tries to use her power on the SUV, which is her mother’s but she comes up empty, so she repeats the phrase. “I’m my mother’s….OH MY GOD YOU SLEPT WITH JO?”
Emma and Mario freeze, then Emma hits Mario hard. “Mario, you wait later, I’m going to kick your ass.”
“Someone would say something at some point, yeah, Emma banged Jo,” says Mario. Emma wags a threatening finger at him and he simply smiles. “Someone would let that cat out of the bag, easier for us to tell her, isn’t it?”
“Oh god, can’t you have more tact?” asks Emma. She turns to face Rylee whose face is a brilliant shade of red. “It was complicated.”
“Sex always is,” whispers Rylee. She walks around their SUV, snapping her fingers, shivers rushing up and down her spine. “No wonder I’m gay, my mom is!”
Emma gives Mario a heated look. “Look what you’ve done? Rylee, I’m not gay. I did it to bring Jo back into the circle, the same way you did with Spencer, the one where she could hear our thoughts and it wasn’t scandalous.”
“You’re gay,” says Rylee, circling the SUV again, leaning to peek around the side to bring both her parents into view. “Dad did you know this? Did you know that your wife is a dyke?”
Mario puts his hands on his knees and tries to stop from laughing. “Baby girl, she’s not. It really was a onetime thing. I got it, I was under the Wheaton spell once too.”
“Oh my god, oh my god, ohmygod! You slept with Jo too?” exclaims Rylee. “What is it with that woman? Does she have beer flavored nipples? What?”
Now Mario collapses on the ground and he can’t breathe, Emma throws her hands up and sits down next to the SUV. “I give up.”