J*A*D*E*S
Roads
11.22.04
You travel down the road
That no one dares to journey
I see that you’ve got something in mind
I feel my emotions run deep
It’s simply me
You need more
I’ll never look back
You’ve forsaken me
Broken my heart
Shattered and busted
We all fall down
Time keeps ticking by
As we pick up the piece of our severed lives
We hit the ground
Pain keeping us alive
I’ll never look back
You’ve forsaken me
Broken my heart
I’ll glue the pieces together
Offer it to you
When we meet at the fork unknown
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me!” yells Jo irate at Emma for keeping things from her, of all the people in the world that Jo trusts, she trusts Emma the most. She ranks right up there with Bev.
“I thought you’d get pissed?” asks Emma as they walk along the sidewalk heading into APO, Authorized Personal Only, the division that they were heading up with Rosita. Rosita is already there, they are hot on the trail of a flourishing crime syndicate. “Which you are, so, I was right.”
“Pissed? Why would I be PISSED THAT YOU SAW BEV GETTING MARRIED TO SOMEONE ELSE!” roars Jo causing the few people who are jogging to turn, jogging backwards to see what the woman in a suit is yelling about. Jo grimaces, chiding herself for losing her temper, but she didn’t want to lose something else, Bev.
“Calm down,” orders Emma, turning and placing a gentle hand on Jo’s chest. “Now you listen to me, you know as well as I do that my powers, or my visions, aren’t always right.”
“Really? Since when? I’ve only seen you be right! When does this happen, when did you see it?” asks Jo who is in a frenzy not having slept since Natalie’d spilled the not-so-secret secret to her on the phone. Unable to ask Bev anything, Jo had simmered at home the night before, not going to Bev’s but sleeping at Abandon instead. Her heart aches at the thought of life without Bev in it.
“I felt it from you,” admits Emma stopping before they dial the number to APO from the disconnected phone booth. Emma hadn’t thought that Natalie would tell Jo before she’d had a chance to gently break it to her best friend. Nat sometimes acts like a teenager herself. But her heart’s in the right place.
“So, that means I am at the wedding,” muses Jo running her hands through her hair, it spikes up on the left side, making Jo look that much wilder than just the look in her eyes. Emma feels the pain ebbing from Jo. Jo has always loved people, but never as she’s fallen for Bev, the woman had accepted Jo with no trepidations, vampire strand and all.
“You see it from afar, I don’t see the other woman’s face, I can’t tell who it is, and it could be anyone. Jo, this might not happen,” stated Emma again, lying, praying Jo doesn’t read her mind.
Jo slumps against the dirty wall, shaking her head, “It’s gonna happen.”
“No,” says Emma shaking her head and seeing the life bleeding out of Jo. “Jo, we’ve changed things before, we’ve beaten the odds, and you and Bev are strong. A lot stronger couple than you and Amy ever were, you two click, you are in synch. Stop being all foreboding!”
Jo’s eyes flicker, their hue changing from their normal blue to stormy and thoughtful. “Emma, when have you ever been wrong?” asks Jo in a soft voice that makes the soft hair on the back of Emma’s neck stand up.
Emma walks over to the door, grabbing Jo’s hand, dragging her along. “There is a first time for everything, you fight; you fight for the woman you love, Jo Wheaton. I’ve never seen you not fight, except when Amy picked having Tegan and a ‘normal’ family over you. You left, you disappeared, if you’d stayed and fought for her, if you’d told us about Spence, you’d have won her back. You’d have won, because Amy Astin never stopped loving you.”
“Glad you think so,” mutters Jo walking down the short hallway, getting scanned, the harsh light making her close her eyes. Jo, for the first time in forever, feels lost.
s*t*a*r*s/J*A*D*E*S
“Aunt Brandy, huh?” says Sydney as they sit down at the table. The tall blonde is sitting across from her, dressed in a tight red leather outfit. Sydney looks her over finding some similarities between her father and Brandy. Their eyes, the way they sit, the way their talk. Sydney thinks it’s just another secret that they’ve kept from her.
“Doyle, call me Doyle,” she smiles. Mike grumbles and Shelby slaps his hand playfully.
“I have to go to the bathroom, you want to get me a beer, handsome man?” asks Shelby. She kisses Mike’s nose and he nods.
“Sure, need any help in there?” he asks teasingly.
“I think I can handle it, big boy,” says Shelby. Shelby walks towards the back of the building.
“God, you two are like teenagers,” mumbles Shelby. She snaps the menu open, looks at it for a few minutes then says, “Dad, there are no prices. That cannot be good! Can you afford this on a cop’s salary? What on earth are some of these things!”
“Do all of you talk in exclamation marks now?” teases Mike. “So, Brandy who are you dating? Or did you get married and I don’t know about it?”
“I don’t date,” answers Brandy. “Are you going to call me Brandy? Call me B at least, okay? Just not Brandy, or Doyle I do prefer that.”
“Don’t you like your name?” asks Shelby. She is studying the menu and isn’t sure what half of the things on the menu are. “Dad you’re ordering for me.”
He laughs. “Okay, kiddo.”
“I hate my name. I’ve always gone by Doyle, even in high school. My dad, our dad, told me he looked over at the liquor cabinet and picked the first thing he saw there, Brandy. That’s how I got my name. I’m glad he didn’t see the Jack Daniels first.”
Sydney laughs. “How did you come up with my name, Dad?”
Shelby sits back down and sees that she has no beer and grumbles. “Your dad thought I looked like this actress in a TV show, and the characters name was Sydney. When you were born you had the deepest dimples ever on a baby.”
“So I, in a very kidding tone, said, “Look, its Sydney!” and the nurse smiled, and wrote it down, we didn’t think anything of it. You were Sydney,” says Mike.
“After an actress, after a bottle in a cabinet,” teases Doyle. “I like your name better.”
“So why don’t you date?” asks Sydney. She smiles and cups her face in her hand. She definitely wants to get to know her sudden Aunt.
“Syd!” says Shelby. The waitress coming over and they order drinks. Mike orders for himself and Sydney. Shelby orders duck and Doyle orders sea food.
“I don’t date because of what I do, Sydney. It complicates things,” says Doyle. She leans back in her chair and looks around the room; her piercing green eyes seeks and checks everyone out.
“You’re a bartender,” says Sydney.
“I also run The Lost and Found,” says Doyle.
“Jo’s whip me beat me club?” blurts our Sydney. “I’m now envious.”
“What?” says Mike and Shelby at the same time. Shelby yanks her phone from her purse and starts tapping a message to Jo about this club. Mike sees her doing that and he takes the phone away. “What Jo does with her businesses isn’t any of ours,” reminds Mike.
Doyle laughs. “It’s not a whip me beat me club,” says Doyle. “Well, in the basic sense, yes. I run it; I also train the submissives that we use as servers.”
Shelby reaches over and covers Sydney’s ears. “Lalalalalalalala,” says Shelby.
Sydney slaps her mom’s hands away. “So, wait, there are submissives there? Do only Dom’s go there? Is it like a place you have to pay to get into? Do you have the whipping posts and the spreader bars and all that?”
Mike covers his ears and asks. “Sydney Doyle how do you know all this stuff?”
Sydney rolls her eyes. “Anne Rice the Sleeping Beauty series, you bought it for me last year. I read it.”
Mike’s mouth works on words but they refuse to leave his throat. Shelby looks at her husband. “What have you been buying our daughter? Do I need to go home and check for other – things?”
“It was Sleeping Beauty,” says Mike in a bland voice. “I mean really Sleeping Beauty should be harmless.”
“You don’t read the back of books, Michael Doyle?” asks Shelby. She then leans over to Sydney and in a whisper says, “You have those at home, right?”
Sydney blushes and her mom kisses her cheeks quickly
Doyle is giggling. She wipes her eyes. “That’s a very basic sense of what the life is about, but yeah, Syd, that’s what I do. No, we have all types of people that go there. Even young girls who want to play for a while,” says Doyle. “I didn’t know that Rylee was under age when I let her in that day.”
Shelby shakes her head, puts up her hand and says, “What?”
“She was upset about something she found out about Spence and she – she went exploring,” says Sydney weakly. “I think she slept with some girl there.”
“That sounds like an Amy reaction,” says Shelby. The concern rivers into her voice making it warm. Their daughters journey is definitely very different than their own.
“Mom, it’s all fine now.”
Doyle watches the dynamic, she’s good at watching; it’s her forte to say the least. “Sydney I think what your mom means is that it was impulsive.”
“As impulsive as me going out and getting high every night when you disappeared? We all deal with things differently, what’s the harm in that?” asks Sydney. She closes her eyes and then says, “Sorry mom.”
Shelby purses her lips and Mike takes her hand. “No that’s true. I was gone for a good chunk of your growing up, and it wasn’t easy on you. I guess I worry about everyone, not just you, but Spencer and Rylee, Abby and Tegan, too.”
Doyle eases forward. “Mike?”
Mike looks at her and nods for her to continue.
“Why didn’t you come find me when Shelby went missing? I could have – remote viewed for her,” says Doyle.
Mike shifts uncomfortably in his chair.
“Dad? Remote view? What is she talking about?” demands Sydney.
“They don’t know,” whispers Doyle. “Crap.”
“She’s a talent?” whispers Sydney. “A talent, Dad? She could have found Mom.” Sydney’s voice is without emotion. “I’m tired, Dad, of the secrets. I’m tired of the not knowing. I’m tired of you guys not trusting us. Of not trusting me.” Sydney stands up, kisses her Mom’s cheek and walks away.
Mike moves to stand up but Shelby grabs his arm and yanks him back to his seat. “You sit down,” growls Shelby.
“I’m sorry I opened my mouth,” says Doyle. “Mike I thought she knew.”
Shelby clenches her teeth and glares at her husband. “You need to explain yourself, Michael Doyle.”
“Actually, I should explain,” says Doyle. She eases her elbows onto the table and puts her hands in front of her. “Mike and I aren’t close, as you know, and I don’t – I don’t use my talent. Ever. It’s like seeing you from the inside out, as if I am you. It’s very hard and Mike has the same talent but it has never come to life. Jon Wheaton knew we were related because of our power connection.”
“I didn’t think it was right to ask!” snaps Mike. He turns to Shelby. “I didn’t know where you were, I thought you were dead. I had no idea you were alive and with Jo. Which is something we’ve never talked about either.”
Shelby turns in her chair and her eyes flash with anger. “About the fact that I was with Jo?”
Mike grumbles and says nothing.
“You’re jealous that I was with Jo?” snaps Shelby. She slaps Mike’s arm. “Are you kidding me? Are you being serious with me right now? And tell me why the hell we are talking about this right now?”
Mike grimaces. He casts a hot look at Doyle who just meets his gaze. “Why didn’t you ask?”
“Because that wasn’t fair to you,” he says to Doyle. “I know you hate using your talent and how it makes you feel like you are invading someone.” Mike turns and looks at Shelby. “It was easier dealing with it if you were dead than if you’d run away to be with someone else.”
“I didn’t run away from you, I ran away from the – from what I was seeing. I went to Jo because she knows how to fix things, if you hadn’t noticed,” says Shelby. “Why are we talking about this now?”
Mike shrugs. “I don’t know.”
Doyle taps Mike’s shoulder. “Where did your daughter go?”
“I’m not worried about her,” says Shelby. “She can take care of herself. I’m sure she’s back at the island. Sydney does what I do, she can teleport.”
Doyle smiles. “I’ll remember that when I want to go on vacation.”
s*t*a*r*s
Sydney pops into the library at HIA. She looks around even though she knows there is no one there. She goes into Natalie’s holographic office and boots up the computer there. She pulls up the Kindred files of who is who and what they do and starts to read. She’s tired of the secrets and if that means digging into the past then so be it.