Rachel Berry Ishii☆ (sg_rachel) wrote in supergleerpg, @ 2012-06-11 22:35:00 |
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Entry tags: | !type: narrative, -2022: june, character: jaime ishii, character: rachel berry |
Opening Narrative: Time Travel's a Bitch
Who: Rachel, Jaime, Luka (NPC)
Where: The House of Ishii, both now and in the future.
When 6/11, evening.
What Rachel takes a trip to the future and learns to open her eyes.
Rachel woke up all at once, quickly aware that her surroundings were not that of her bedroom in the apartment her family shared. It had been somewhat of a hard lesson learned, her new tendency to wake up rapidly, but she was grateful, and had prevented many a crisis with the learned skill.
In this case, though, it just made her upset come that much quicker.
“No.” She said to the air around her, glancing around quickly, before seeing someone - her older self - staring back at her from a chair sitting by the bed she was in. Fine - now she had someone at which to direct her irritation.
“No. No, no, no. This hasn’t happened for years; why does it have to be tonight? Luka isn’t feeling well tonight; he never sleeps through the night when he’s sick. It can’t be tonight. Jaime, we can’t-” Rachel paused, realizing for the first time that Jaime was nowhere to be found.
Relief washed over her at that, for the first time happy that Jaime had to take a late night bathroom break. “Oh, thank goodness. I was afraid our tendency to snuggle had unintentionally endangered our children.” It’s not that they didn’t have a contingency plan for such an event - the kids knew Pollux’s number by heart should they wake up alone, and he had promised to be there in a flash should he ever receive it - but there was a reason that those were the last line of defense. No one wanted it to come to that.
Her older self smiled knowingly, not saying anything for awhile. To Rachel, it looked like she was connecting the dots; remembering the moment as it was before she inserted herself into her own memory. Finally, though, her smile turned bittersweet as she said. “Jaime’s not home, little me.”
Rachel’s eyes widened, and she was unsure how to take this news. Because, really - if Jaime wasn’t home, and he hadn’t come with Rachel, then where was he? “What?”
Almost as quickly as it had seemed away, the worry was back with a vengence, and she felt just a little sick to her stomach. “Oh, my god. Where is he? My children are home alone, my husband’s missing, and I’m in the future. I haven’t traveled since before my pregnancy; how is it happening now? And why? I don’t even know what possibly could have triggered-”
“Yes, you do.” Her older self said, cutting her off. “I remember this part of my life well, because I did quite a bit of thinking of what exactly could have led me here. Considering, of course, that I didn’t remember any of the conversation that we’re having right now. In the end, it was quite simple, and I know that, deep down, you know why.”
“I really don’t.” Rachel said, irritated with both Jaime and herself, on top of her all-consuming worry for the twins. “Everything’s great, right now. Nothing has happened warranting this trip.”
Her older self smiled that soft, knowing smile once again, causing Rachel to roll her eyes. “Come on, Rachel. You and I both know that’s not true. We’ve never been ones for self delusion before; why is it that we’re so thoroughly entrenched in it right now?”
Rachel simply huffed, not any less irritated. “And I suppose we’ve gotten rid of that particular vice, then? In... how far ahead am I?”
“A little over five years. The twins turn nine in a month.” The excitement over the mention of her children was contagious. Rachel’s wistful smile was brief, however, as the reality of the situation settled back over her. Her older self seemed to sense her impending question, and was quick to cut her off at the pass. “They’re fine, I promise. Luka wakes up, but only barely. Nothing happens.”
Rachel sighed in relief, her chest feeling heavy despite the welcome news. “What happened?” She said, ready to get to the bottom of this.
“You came home late again, despite promising that we’d be out early this time, remember?” Rachel said, leaning back in the chair she was resting in. “You were tired, and not up for anything but helping the twins to bed. Jaime was upset, but didn’t say anything. You noticed, and also didn’t say anything. You went to bed unsettled at the pattern that was developing. That’s how you ended up here - how we ended up here.”
Rachel was silent, unsure of what to say, so her older self continued. “I know this seems like useless information, considering that this entire conversation will be a complete blur, but at least try to remember to keep him in mind, okay? Things are not the same. Success has changed you, rather you want to admit it or not. And the worst part is that he gets the brunt of it, while no one else seems to notice.”
“I thought things would return to normal,” Rachel said softly, glancing down at her hands. She was already beginning to feel tired again; this visit must have been a brief one. “We’ve always managed to beat the odds, and I thought... I thought that this time would be no exception.”
Her older self nodded, her smile enigmatic. “He’s always been the one to do the chasing. He always made the sacrifices, and stuck his neck out for us and our relationship. It can’t keep happening that way. It just can’t.”
Anything that Rachel wished to say in reply was cut off by the yawn that acted as the warning that her brief meeting was almost over.
As she settled back into the bed, attempting to formulate another question, her older self simply shook her head. “Don’t be too hard on him, okay? It’s not his fault.”
But the sentiment faded away, lost with the rest of the details of the brief, potent visit.
~*~
Rachel shot up straight in bed, quickly realizing what exactly had just happened. There wasn’t much that she remembered from this visit, but a few key things stood out: She’d gone alone, and Jaime was nowhere to be found.
Pulling herself out of bed, she padded quickly to the kids’ room, panicking when she saw Luka’s brand new,fire truck bed as empty, covers thrown back and Spongebob slippers missing from the floor.
Trying her best not to wake Aurora, she let herself out of the room, closing the door behind her, and walking on wobbly legs down the hall to the living room, searching high and low for her son. She bit back a panicked sob as she headed back toward her bedroom, ready to call Pollux and Daveto see if he’d received a call that could tell her what exactly had happened to her boys.
“Mommy?” She heard, pausing in the hallway and almost crying out in relief at her son’s voice. “I went to use the potty but then my head hurted still and my nose is watering and I can’t sleep ‘cause it’ll get all over my pillow. Can you and Daddy sing me the sleepy song?”
Laughing lightly as she turned, she immediately lifted her sniffly son, sighing as he rested his head on her shoulder. “Well, why don’t we just make it between you and me right now, okay? We’ll sit on the couch so you can watch the fish and we’ll sing the sleepy song until you can sleep again.”
Luka nodded, allowing himself to be carried into the living room as Rachel sang softly to him.
~*~
She was woken from her light sleep by the click of the door. The noise was almost like switch - the light contentment that had settled over her as she rocked her son to sleep turned into potent anger as she saw her husband make his way back into the apartment. “I hope you had fun, wherever you were.” She whispered harshly, trying not to wake the lightly snoring Luka.
Jaime stiffened at Rachel’s tone, the relief of seeing Luka sleeping peacefully in her lap melting away under her heated gaze. He couldn’t blame her though, she had every right to be angry with him even if he’d had no idea that she was going to travel when he left the house. When she left it had felt like he’d been punched directly in the chest by a heavyweight boxer. The shock of it had hit with so much force he’d almost fallen off of his barstool. And then the panic had begun.
Rachel was gone and his kids were home. Alone. He couldn’t get out of that bar fast enough, stumbling and bumping into people as he tried to get outside. No doubt they’d all thought he was drunk but he hadn’t cared. Once outside he’d ducked into the nearest alley so that he could open a portal only to find that his powers weren’t working. It was like The Storm all over again, only instead of letting his panic escalate into terror, he’d forced himself to focus. He needed to get home, now.
From where he was it would take at least thirty minutes for him to get to his apartment building by cab, but he’d had no other choice. Halfway there he’d felt Rachel return and he couldn’t have been more relieved even though he was still worried about Luka and Rory since Luka was sick and tended to get up at all hours of the night.
Now he stood in front of his son sleeping safe and sound as well as his angry wife. He ran his fingers through his hair, tugging at the strands in the back. It was a habit he’d developed in college when he was frustrated. Rachel used to partially tease that he would go bald if he kept it up, but not anymore. There were a lot of things Rachel didn’t do anymore, reminding him of the reason he’d left the house in first place. He sighed, barely meeting her narrowed eyes.
“Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were going to travel and when you did. I tried to get back here as fast as I could. I swear.”
“Nobody knows when it’ll happen, Jaime! That’s why it’s so important that you’re here. I never thought that this type of thing would be a problem for us, but apparently I was wrong.” She said, trying to contain her ire as best she could. Luka was extremely sensitive to others being upset, and she didn’t want him to wake up to their raised voices.
Sighing, she shook her head before looking back up at him. “Where did you go?
Jaime’s jaw clenched, his entire body body tensing as she snapped at him. Her words stung but he couldn’t refute them. He’d always considered himself a good father but how could he be if he’d left his son alone? He briefly closed his eyes against the guilt before looking at her again.
What was worse was that this was the first time he and Rachel were actually speaking in over a week and it could easily turn into a fight. Something Jaime didn’t want to go through, especially with Luka in the room with them.
“Just out, nowhere special. We can talk about it later.” He finally answered albeit a bit tiredly as he kicked off his shoes and shrugged out of his jacket.
Rachel closed her eyes, taking a deep, cleansing breath in an attempt to quell her anger. His flippant response had just made everything worse, and she wanted nothing more than to get to the bottom of this right now.
Her son shifted in her arms, though, reminding her of why exactly now wasn’t the time. Still, she couldn’t help but make sure he understood how she felt about this. “This isn’t okay, Jaime. You can’t just leave and not tell me where it is that you’re going, or that you’re going at all. Never again. It was one thing if it was just us, but Luka and Aurora can’t-” She cut herself off, frustrated. “Never again.”
“I know this isn’t okay Rachel.” He answered quickly, his tone sharper than he’d intended. It was just that she hadn’t been the only one who’d been scared. Still, it shouldn’t have come to this even if he’d had the best intentions in mind. Thinking of all the ways things could have gone wrong he shuddered. His shoulders slumped as he forced himself to relax, turning apologetic eyes on her.
“I know I messed up and I’m sorry. I was just...” He shook his head before his expression grew serious. “It doesn’t matter. It won’t happen again. I promise.”
Huffing, Rachel stood, waving Jaime off as he moved forward to help her with Luka. “Fine.” Her son groaned, switching his head to her other shoulder and falling back to sleep. “We’re talking about this in the morning, okay? I deserve to know what happened tonight.”
Hoisting Luka up onto her shoulder better, she smoothed his wild hair down onto his head before making her way toward his bedroom.
Jaime hesitated, not sure what to do once Rachel dismissed him. He wanted her help her put Luka to bed and reassure himself that their children were fine. He wanted to follow Rachel to their room and hold her close until they both fell asleep. He just wanted things to be normal between them again, but disappointment, guilt, frustration, and all the other emotions that had led him to that moment kept him rooted to his spot. Then something occurred to him.
“Rachel?” He called softly, waiting for her to look at him before he continued. “What did you see? When you travelled.”
Rachel paused, really trying for the first time since the trip to figure out what had happened. Still, no matter how much effort she put into trying to figure out details, everything remained fuzzy and unclear. She was unsettled in a way that told her that whatever she’d learned was important, but the whole thing was just a big blank.
Finally she sighed, giving up. “I honestly don’t know. It doesn’t matter though, Jaime.” She said without turning around. “There are more important things to worry about right now.
With that, she continued her trek toward the twins’ room, feeling, for the first time in a long time, genuinely worried about what her and Jaime’s future would bring.