Imperfections
Izzy wasn't sure which emotion toward her brother was stronger at the moment: anger or disappointment. She hadn't been able to believe her ears when he'd used his one phone call, drug possession of all things! It brought all the old demons of her childhood back that she'd thought safely left behind in this dimension.
So here she was, in the station, waiting for them to bring him out after she posted his bail. Posting Bail! Two words she'd never thought she'd put together with her brother in this dimension, but yet here she was sitting on an uncomfortable plastic chair in the front of the building. '"Shaw, your sister's here. Step up to the yellow line and wait until the doors open, please. Once your bail's posted you can collect your personal effects."
At least they'd taken the cuffs off, Bobby thought, chafing his wrists as he waited for the doors leading out of the holding cells to open. He felt dirty, as if he hadn't showered in a week, but it was really just the exposure to the people who'd been in the cells with him. This was not how he had wanted to spend his night.
"Stop." The voice through the intercom was tinny, and the lawyer stopped scratching his arms. He dreaded seeing his sister, but it was preferable to facing Geoff, or worse, his mother. What was he supposed to say to her? He couldn't imagine.
Possession. Jesus Christ. How was he supposed to explain this?
How was she supposed to explain this to momma and daddy? Izzy could only imagine what her stepfather would say, and her mother would probably be ashamed to even talk of it. Bobby came to visit her and was busted for drug possession? What the hell?
She stood as the door buzzed open and Bobby walked out, but couldn't bring herself to do more than look at him at that moment. The younger sister had become the responsible one, who would have guessed that? She wasn't sure if she'd slap him or hug him if she got close enough, so Izzy waited him out.
"Hi." He sounded tired, and he rubbed his eyes with the back of one hand as he stood there. They'd taken his watch and his belt, and his pants sagged in the back where they were loosest. "Thanks for coming down." It was past midnight, he knew that much. It had been after ten when the flashing lights started blinking off and on. he wondered how St. Clare had gotten out of it. He hadn't seen the guy when he'd been booked. Probably the little shit had slipped off as soon as the sirens started. His bad luck.
"I'll pay you back." A stupid thing to say, but it was all he could offer. He wanted to go to bed and sleep for a week. "How much was the bail?"
"Five thousand, but remarkably enough they have this thing called bail bonds so I only had to post about ten percent of that." Izzy was tired, cranky, and in no mood to deal with her brother. She'd been sorely tempted to leave him in until morning, but it was better to get it out of the way now.
The witch looked him over, taking in the rumpled appearance, and managed to avoid wrinkling her nose from the smell. Whoever had been in the cell before him had obviously left a scent to remember them by, and it had gotten into his clothes.
"You should have your things at the desk, pick them up and let's go." Her tone brooked no argument and neither did the shuttered expression on her face. Some things should not be discussed in public and she was going to hold her fire until they were safely behind closed doors.
The desk clerk gave Bobby an envelope, and he opened it to examine the contents before putting his watch back on and tucking his billfold into his trouser pocket. he'd never expected go through this on this side of the desk. He could feel his sister's anger and distaste, and he hunched his shoulders against it. She could yell at him later, but he had to get the hell out of here.
"Sorry about this."
"Not here." Izzy told him as Bobby put his belt on. She held her silence all the way to the car and the short drive back to her home, the anger and hurt building up as they went. This time of night even in Key West there weren't any cars on the road and the island wasn't that large, so it was barely five minutes from the police station to the house.
She flicked the lights on as they entered the house through the kitchen and waited for her brother to step inside and close the door before saying a word. "Drug possession? Gods below, Bobby! How the hell did you get tangled up in that?!" The witch decided that slapping was more likely than hugging if she let herself get within arm's reach of her brother, so she leaned against the counter instead.
He folded his arms and glowered off at nothing, a muscle jumping in his cheek. Whether he'd screwed up or not, the last thing he wanted from Little Miss Perfect was a lecture. "I haven't been using for long," he said. "And I've been trying to ease off, its just hard. It's easier to start than it is to stop." He spread his hands out, a mute gesture that asked for understanding if not agreement.
"I have a problem. I made a mistake."
"'I haven't been using for long'?" Izzy parroted in disbelief. "Listen to yourself! Gods Bobby, this could kill your entire career!" She shook her head. "How did you get hooked in the first place and why didn't you check yourself into rehab or something as soon as you did?"
"This is so typical," she muttered under her breath, not thinking. While as a child she'd worshiped her older brother and held him on a pedestal, the adult Izzy had realized that he'd gotten involved in the wrong crowd early on. In her home dimension it had cost him his life, what would it cost here?
"Excuse me?" Bobby was glowering more openly at her now, and it rankled that she was taking such a superior tone with him. He'd hidden his issues with the coke for this very reason, that he knew she'd lord it over him whether she meant to or not. He didn't like being proven right about that. his slightly bloodshot eyes narrowed as he jammed his hands into his pockets, the muscle in his cheek twitching again. "Do you mind telling me what that's supposed to mean?"
"Tell you about what?" Izzy blinked at the sudden change of subject, the idea that she'd muttered the words aloud hadn't really registered with her yet. "What are you talking about Bobby?"
"You said it was typical," Bobby snapped, and he looked at the table where the phone sat for a moment before directing his gaze back towards his sister. "You and Geoff have been talking, haven't you? Don't think that I don't know because I do. I'm sure he's gonna love this, his idiot stepson getting bailed out of jail in the middle of the night. Another chance for you to be the favorite."
Well, shit. Izzy stared at him for a moment, wondering just how she'd entered this minefield. What was she supposed to say? 'I'm a version of your sister from an alternate dimension, and oh yeah, I'm a witch to boot and the same age as you'?
"No," She drew out the word into something that sounded like it had three or four syllables instead of one. "You can check my cell phone, I haven't talked to daddy or momma tonight. In fact, what I did is get my ass out of bed at two in the morning to come bail my brother out of jail. Haven't I always been the peacemaker? I hated it when you two fought!" At least what memories she had from Isabelle's childhood suggested it, and so did the diary. "I'm sure he'll find out eventually but I'm sure as hell not going to be the one to tell him!"
"You've always been daddy's girl, ever since Geoff and mom got married," the lawyer said, and his tone was matter-of-fact rather than strictly unkind. "Even if you don't mean to be, he's always liked you best. It's hard to compete when he decided when we were kids that you were the golden child. It makes me feel like not bothering."
"I was still crawling when they got married, Bobby! I don't even remember it!" Izzy protested, her voice rising as she got defensive. "How can I possibly defend myself against something like that? It wasn't like I made some kind of effort to be the perfect child. Wasn't I always the adoring little sister to you? You were so much older than me, I always looked up to you." In both dimensions, she didn't add.
He shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck, which was stiff with tension. "You've always been there," he said a little tiredly. "I'm not saying you do anything on purpose. But it was always like no matter what I did it was never good enough and Geoff was always going to love you best. It made it tough to grow up beside you. He's never liked me, even you have to admit that."
"Maybe," Izzy conceded. "There isn't anything I can do about that, I've tried refereeing between the two of you ever since I can remember. He may not have liked you, but it obviously was mutual. I don't know what he did that was so horrible, but it's like you never gave him a chance!" She threw her hands up in frustration. " Gah! Why are we even having this conversation?!"
The blonde took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down before she did something she would regret later, like hexing her brother. "What do they have on you?"
"It was only a couple of ounces. I was just buying enough to tide me over until I got home. I really don't use much, or often. Some of the guys on the job are way more hooked than I am. It isn't as bad as it could be." He felt ashamed of himself, now more than ever. He'd only yelled because was was feeling defensive, insecure. He could just imagine the field day his stepfather was going to have with this.
"I will pay you back. I can go to the bank in the morning and make a withdrawal. You'll get every cent back, I swear."
"'It isn't as bad as it could be?'" Izzy felt a headache coming on and moved her hands up to start massaging her forehead. "That's like being a 'little bit pregnant' Bobby: either you are using or you aren't." Her brother was an addict, and apparently so were a lot of his coworkers. So much for a perfect, Norman Rockwell style family. She should have known there was no such thing as a free lunch with the Powers.
"'We're gonna fix this." She glanced up at her brother, "I don't care about the money, that isn't important. First thing we'll do is get you into a rehab program, get you off the drugs. Then we'll figure out how to keep you out of jail and still able to practice law." Maybe she should be asking him what he wanted to do, but his judgment hadn't exactly been stellar lately. Funny how life worked, the younger sibling was acting like the grown-up of the pair.
He didn't like being lectured, and it showed. He ran his tongue over his upper teeth and grimaced at the taste. "Can I just say something for ten seconds here, before you decide to plan out the rest of my life for me? You don't know the kind of pressure I'm under. You don't have any idea. The biggest worry you have is whether or not the maids at that damned hotel of yours have left enough soap and towels behind. You're gonna solve my problems? You've never had a problem!"
Bobby raked both hands through his hair, making it stand straight up. "I have watched you since you were old enough to walk, and you have skated through this life without the slightest effort, and no one expects anything of you. Not Mom. Not Geoff. Certainly not Mark. You're gonna get married and you're gonna have kids, and that's it. Maybe he'll still let you work, maybe he won't. You're going to have a perfect suburban life, and you'll skate through that too. If you had my life, you'd fall apart in...ten months, tops."
"Mark isn't going to have a say on my working or not, and if he has a problem with that fact then that's too goddamn bad." Izzy told her brother through gritted teeth, almost as angry as he clearly was. Only the fact that he knew Isabelle and not her was keeping the witch from doing something she'd regret. "I'm not going to get into a competition with you on who's had a rougher time in their life, but I'm not the helpless princess you seem to think I am."
She took a deep breath and then exhaled, trying to let some of the anger go with it. "So, if you don't like the rehab idea what are you going to do to get your life straightened out? I love you and I don't want to get a phone call a few years from now that they found you face down in a gutter someplace dead from an overdose, or worse."
A little against his will, the lawyer softened. She means well, he reminded himself, but regardless of whether there had ever been malice on her part in the favoritism category or not, she had benefited from being the golden child. "I didn't say I wouldn't go to rehab," he said more quietly. "I said that if you'd take five minutes to compare our lives, you'd realize you've had it ridiculously easy. I screwed up. I know that. But you never have, and the reason for that is because no one's ever put any strain on you. Do me the favor of at least acknowledging that."
He sat down on the couch, then leaned back against the cushion and closed his eyes. It was late and he didn't want to argue anymore. "I'm due in Gainesville tomorrow, if the office there doesn't hear about this, and then its back to L.A. They have programs there. I'll look into it, I give you my word." After a silence, still with his eyes closed, he asked, "When Geoff finds out --" Not if but when "--what will you tell him?"
"I'll tell him it's none of his business but if he wants to know he should talk to you." Izzy sighed and moved to collapse into the chair to the side of the couch.
Bobby's comments about having it easy rankled. Izzy had to work hard for everything in her life up to the point she woke up in the waters off Key West, and had been tested in ways he couldn't even imagine. Somehow she doubted this version of her brother would have fared well in the Battle of Lincoln Park, to her he was the soft one. For all his griping about Isabelle being the golden child, he'd still grown up a child of wealth and privilege in this dimension. His complaints were certainly no excuse for using!
She couldn't really dispute his assessment of Isabelle's life though. This dimension's version of herself had never had demands put on her, challenged to grow. That fact would color how people looked at her who knew the old Isabelle. All she could do was try to show people that things were different now. "You may be right Bobby, about how I was before, but things are different now. I've had a chance to grow up out here and I'd like to think that I'm stronger than people realize."
He said nothing in response to that, but he did open his eyes. "I'm sorry I let you down." How much was their relationship going to suffer because of this? Their differences aside, she was his sister and he loved her. He could deal with Geoff's bad opinion, but not hers. "I guess I'm not exactly who you thought I was either. Sorry I couldn't be better."
"It just proves you're human Bobby." Izzy reached over and touched his hand, waiting until he looked at her. "I'm not going anywhere big brother, so you might as well get used to me getting in your face when I think you're screwing up. Yeah, I'm not happy with you right now but I still love you and that's never going to change. Family looks after family, we'll fix this somehow."
"Somehow I doubt Geoff's going to be as forgiving." Bobby looked at his watch. "You mind if I crash here tonight? I don't think I can manage the drive back to the hotel right now." He probably wouldn't sleep, but it'd be good not to be alone when the morning arrived.
"I don't care what he thinks, Bobby." Izzy rubbed the back of her head tiredly and glanced at the clock. While Isabelle wouldn't have dreamed of siding against her adoptive father, Izzy was more than willing to stand up for what she believed in.
"My house is your house, I'll get you a pillow and some blankets."
He kicked his shoes off, yawning jaw-crackingly. He should probably shower, just to get the stink off. Even if he didn't sleep, it'd make him feel better to clean himself up. Something had to go right tonight. "Thanks. I appreciate it."
"What are little sisters for?" She stood up and kissed her brother on the cheek, then went off to get the blankets.
Izzy had just gotten him back, she wasn't going to let him be taken away again. By anyone.
[Note: The NPC Bobby Shaw was written by Stargazer.]