Meanwhile, In New York City....
We had been sitting in Lorne's office for about half an hour before any of us said anything. I was laying on the couch in his office. I had taken my jacket off and loosened my tie. Higgins was sitting in the chair next to me and Lorne was behind his desk just watching me.
I got up and started pacing. I rolled up my sleeves. My phone vibrated on the end table next to the couch. I looked at it, hoping it was Breckyn. Of course, twitter. Im sure it was more tweets and retweets about me and the 'mystery woman.' I threw my phone into the couch and started pacing again.
"Jimmy. We cant just ignore that this is happening." Lorne was the first to say anything. I stopped and sat down on the couch. I ran my hand through my hair. "I know Lorne, but what the hell am I gonna do? No one was supposed to know about me and Nancy yet. Hell, you weren't even supposed to know." I said. I just stared at the floor.
"Jimmy, it's a little too late for that. Hundreds of people witnessed you kissing this woman, whats her name?" he asked, calmly.
"Breckyn. Her name is Breckyn Jones. And in all actuality, thousands have probably seen that picture by now." I sighed as I leaned back against the couch.
"I would say so. #JFK is trending." Higgins said as he was scrolling down his twitter feed. "That could just mean the president." Lorne said to Higgins.
"No... it stands for JimmyFallonKiss. Its all over twitter." Higgins said, pointing his screen towards me. I stared at the thousands of tweets that he was scrolling through. Some had pictures, a couple even had video.
"Well, at least I don't have to find a hash tag for next week, right?" I said trying to make light of the situation. "Jimmy, its time to be serious." Lorne cleared his throat and walked around his desk. He sat in a chair in front of me and pushed it closer. "We need to get on damage control. Number one, does Nancy know about Breckyn or this incident?" he asked. I looked up. I had forgotten about Nancy. I must have had this panicked look on my face because Higgins jumped up and said "I got ya Jim. I'll handle this one."
I got up and stopped him. "No, she at least deserves to hear this from me. Plus, there will probably be quite a bit of yelling. I got this. Nancy needs to hear this from me." I picked up my phone and stepped out into the hallway. I looked at the clock. It would be about 6 o clock there, her time. Should be okay to call now. I dialed her number. It rang twice and then she answered.
"Hey, I was just getting ready to call you. Winnie just got done eating. I was going to let you talk to her before I gave her a bath and got her ready for bed. Winnie, you wanna say hi to daddy?" Nancy was talking baby talk to Win. I could hear Win gabbing away in the background. I missed Winnie so much, it made my heart hurt. I could feel the tears forming in my eyes. God, this was so tough.
"Say hi to daddy, Winnie." Nancy moved the phone closer to Winnie's mouth. I heard her baby talk. "Hey, Winnie. I love you! I hope you are having fun with mommy! I miss you." I said, my voice breaking. "Dada Dada Dada..." Winnie half said into the phone but I could tell she was moving away from the speaker. She was probably playing with her toys. She does that a lot. I muffled a cry into my elbow.
Nancy got back on the phone. "So Jimmy? Did you need anything or were you just calling to talk to Winnie?" she casually said into the phone.
"Actually, there is something I need to talk to you about Nance. Are you sitting down?" I said, sniffling and wiping off my face. "Oh gosh, Jimmy. What's going on?" she was worried. She had every right to be. "I take it you haven't been on twitter today, have you?" I asked. "No, I havent really had time to today. Why, whats going on Jimmy? Just spit it out."
"Well, I kind of accidently let the cat out of the bag about the divorce." I closed my eyes, waiting for the yelling to begin. Surprisingly, it didn't. "Okay, what do you mean you let the cat out of the bag? You said it on the show or what?" I sighed. "No, I havent mentioned it on the show. It's a long story Nancy, but this woman fell at one of the tapings the other night and got hurt pretty bad. She fainted and cut open her arm really bad. Anyways, I took her to the hospital and I felt bad for her getting hurt at my show. I don't know what came over me, but I offered to take care of her. She has this really bad past Nancy, and she confided in me. So, I don't know, something came over me. I told her all about us and I just instantly felt this connection with her. You know how I get. I couldn't stop talking to her. And.. I don't know if I should keep going, Nance, this is weird."
"Jimmy, I know you better than anyone else. I may not be your wife anymore, but that doesn't mean I stopped caring for you as a person. What happened?" She said. "I don't know, I just felt drawn to her. I tried to stay back, I tried to be professional, I tried to just do what needed to be done..." Nancy interrupted me.
"What's her name Jim?" she said. "What?" I asked. "You are obviously taken aback by this woman enough to talk to ME about her. I would just like to know her name." she said. I was shocked. "Breck... Breckyn Jones. How did you know?" Nancy sighed. "James Fallon, I was married to you for 7 years and we dated for 2 years before that. You think I don't know what it sounds like when you are passionate about something? What happened? Did someone see you guys? Paparazzi harassing you again?" she kinda half laughed at the end of that last part.
"A couple hundred people saw us. I ran through the airport to stop her from going home." Nancy laughed. "You, you RAN through an airport to stop her from going home? I would have paid to see that one." "Yeah and I made myself look like an idiot, I kissed her in front of everyone, there's pictures, long story long, its all over the internet. So, the cats out of the bag." I said.
Nancy stopped laughing and got serious. "Look, Jimmy, we both know that the decisions we made as a couple to end the relationship was the right thing to do. I love you, but I'm not in love with you. You will always be the father of my child and my friend, but we couldn't spend the rest of our lives just settling for each other just because we have Winnie or because of our careers. We owe it to ourselves to be happy. The way I see it, you have a choice to make right now. You can either explain this in a way that you can write this one off and never have to deal with it again or you can tell everyone the truth. Personally, the Jimmy I know would take the latter. Do whatever makes you happy hon. We can't be alone forever just because we are too scared to face the truth. If you feel this passionately about it, you owe It to yourself. You don't want to fall for this just to fall apart again. Can you stand to see her walk away? If you can't then don't let her. I'm not saying you don't have good reason for wanting to stay away from anything like that. You really have to stop and think though, swallow your pride because this is a road you don't want to go down. If you cant stand to think of her anywhere else but with you, well that's all you need to know. It was going to come out someday. Why can't today be that day? I think you owe it to yourself and you owe it to Breckyn to not cover this up. Just tell it like it is. Lorne will stand behind you and so will your fans. And so will I, Jim"
I let out a big sigh of relief. "Thank you for being so cool about this, Nance. I really never thought it could be this way between us again. I'm glad that I have you in my life. I'm glad that I have your support. I don't know how I'm going to fix this though."
"You'll figure it out. You always do. I have to go give Winnie a bath and put her to bed. Are you okay to get off of here?" she asked. "Yeah, I think so. Can I tell Winnie goodnight?"
"Of course. Say goodnight to Daddy, Winnie!" Nancy said in the background.
"bye bye Dada" I heard Winnie say. "Night Night, Winnie Rose." I teared up as I heard her laugh at Nancy making noises in the background. "I'll talk to you soon, we should be home Saturday and then I will drop her off at the house, ok?" Nancy said when she got the phone back. "Yeah, that works. Hey, Nancy?"
"Yeah?" she asked. "Thank you... for everything." I said, turning back to go into the office. "Don't thank me. I didn't do anything you wouldn't have done for me. Don't worry, Jimmy. It will all work out. I promise." she said. "I got to go though. Good luck."
I hung up the phone and walked back into Lorne's office. I let out a sigh of relief. Higgins looked up at me. "How did she take it?" he asked. "Surprisingly really well. I'm shocked. She supports whatever decision I want to make about telling everyone."
Lorne looked at me, "Are you willing to go public with this soon? I think sooner would be better, Jim." he gave me his serious look. The look that meant he knew what he was talking about. "I do too, Lorne. I just need to talk to Breckyn and see how she feels about all this. I mean, we literally just decided to give this a try. I don't want to push her away, but I don't want to give all this up either. I said as I went to Lorne's window and looked out on the city. "I love this job. I can't stand to think I could lose this because I was an idiot."
"You Won't lose this. I wont let that happen. I just don't know why you didn't confide in me with this sooner. I would have figured out a way for all of this to blow over much more smoothly. I could have been there for you." Lorne looked at me. "I know, Lorne, I was just scared."
"You don't have to be scared about confiding in me about anything. You don't have to go through anything alone. I am always here for you. Always." Lorne said as he got up and walked around the desk. "Me too, Jim." Higgins chimed in.
"I just have to ask you, are you willing to accept whatever backlash might happen from this? Are you willing to stick with it even if your ratings drop or the media attacks you? You won't give up on this? You'll come to me if you need anything at all from now on?" Lorne asked, looking me in the eyes.
I nodded my head yes, "Now are you sure that this is what you want to do? You are willing to do all this for her?" I looked up at Higgins. "I don't want to lose all this... but..."
Higgins looked at me "If you and Nancy are really over and you are ready to move on, then that's your choice. If you can't stand to see this girl walk away, if you can't think of a reason why you shouldn't at least give this a go, then don't. I'm not saying you don't have good reason for having reservations about this, but you need to stop and think, swallow your pride and think about whether or not you can stand the thought of her being out there without you? If you cant, well that's all we need to know. Don't leave her if you cant let her go."
I thought about what she might be doing right now. I longed for her to be here. I love Higgins and Lorne but the only person I really wanted to talk to right now, is the only person who would understand what I was dealing with. Breckyn.
I nodded my head and broke down crying in the office. Lorne grabbed his phone and started talking to someone in HR. Higgins came up and gave me a hug. "I think you're doing the right thing, pal. I love you dude. We wont let anything happen to you."
I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I wiped my tears away and grabbed it out of my pocket.
It was Breckyn.