Jed Bailey (jokerandthief) wrote in the_colony, @ 2010-10-14 22:46:00 |
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Entry tags: | ^ week 21, bridget mackenzie, jed bailey, | bridget and jed |
Week 21 - Wednesday
Characters: Bridget and Jed
Location: The kitchen
Summary: After finding Jack cutting her hair, Bridget gives Jed a serious talking to.
Rating: PG
The minute Jed walked in the door, preceded by a thoroughly tired-out Rocky, he took a big whiff. It smelled fantastic. Heading straight for the kitchen, he grinned when he saw Bridget. Jesus she was looking huge. “Hey, smells good. Whatcha makin’?” he asked, peering over her shoulder.
“Chicken and dumplings.” Bridget glanced over her shoulder at Jed, expression cool. She’d been meaning to talk with Jed since her conversation with Jack. The man needed to understand that words had consequences.
Jed frowned, backing up a bit. Huh. “It gonna be done soon or still got a while?” he asked, his tone a little more cautious.
“Soon.” She swiveled her head to watch him. Tell him off now, or wait until later? She was feeling the need to tear into something anyway, so now. “You know you were really mean to Jack the other day.”
Jed’s frown deepened. “She shouldn’t go around like that. I ain’t... I maybe didn’t say it like I should’ve,” he admitted reluctantly. “But someone needed to say somethin’.”
“Why?” Bridget’s frown matched his. “The makeup was a little heavy, but she’s a teenage girl. Experimentation is part of figuring out who she is. Yelling at her and telling her she looks like a whore was a horrible thing to do!” Her voice had risen a bit, and she turned her attention back to the chicken and dumplings to keep them from burning. The stirring was made with more vigor than perhaps was required.
“I didn’t say she looked like a whore!” he objected. “I juss-- I don’t want her gettin’ lessons from Holly. I was tryin’ to be tough.”
“No, you told her she looked like a hooker, same difference.” Bridget fumed, and turned, pointing the spoon at him. ”She worships the ground you walk on, Jed! That made her feel horrible, and then right after that Tom laid down the boom about the religious wackos up north and next thing you know I find her hacking her hair off in the bathroom!”
Jed’s eyes widened and he felt a twinge of guilt. He hadn’t meant for that to happen. Except maybe it should. “Well good, she’s bein’ smart. It’s safer bein’ a boy.”
“Well maybe we should wave a magic wand and give her new plumbing!” Bridget knew she was being irrational, but couldn’t help herself. “Unless she turns out to be flat chested, in a few years pretending to be a boy isn’t going to work for her.” It certainly wasn’t going to work for Bridget. “Besides, she’s not a boy, and it’s only going to make things difficult for her if she keeps pretending. You’re telling her she should live her life in fear, as if the nutjobs from Eugene are going to sweep in and take us all away at any minute.”
“Why should she be any diff’rent, huh?” he snapped. “Ev’ry fu-- Ev’ry damn time she ain’t in my sight, I got this metal ball in the pit of my stomach. What if I ain’t there? What if it don’t matter if I’m there? It ain’t like havin’ short hair changes her. If the worse happens, better they juss shoot her thinkin’ she’s a boy.”
“Well then you need to put on your big boy pants and deal.” Bridget snapped right back, sorely tempted to take the pan of hot food and slam it over his stubborn head. “She’s thirteen years old, she’s starting to be interested in boys and trying to figure out who she’s going to be in this new world. Running around terrified as if the world is going to end again isn’t going to do her any good. She needs calm and stability, and a father figure who won’t wrap her up in cotton and try to keep her a little girl, or worse, a little boy.”
He gave a snort. “How’m I s’posed to give her calm and stability when shit’s always gonna come up, huh? How’s that supposed to work? And what do you know about it?” He gestured at her stomach. “What, juss ‘cause you’re about to pop means you know all there is about raisin’ kids? You don’t. You don’t know any better’n me what’s right.”
“Well I am a girl the last time I looked,” Bridget shot back, putting her hands on her stomach. “I was a teenage girl once upon a time, and I was the sister of another. So maybe I know what the kid’s going through! I’m not saying I know everything there is to know about raising kids, god knows I don’t, but I obviously know more than you.” She realized her voice had raised again, and worked on trying to calm herself down. “And trust me, I’m very aware of how crazy things are out there and it scares the hell out of me.”
“It ain’t the same,” he said, firm. “It’s diff’rent, when yer in charge of someone like that. Hell, Jack don’t know what she wants from me; I make rules, she gets angry, I back off, she thinks I don’t like her no more. Better her safe an’ angry then what else could happen.”
“Of course she doesn’t know what she wants from you, she’s a kid!” Bridget snapped, and turned back to the stove. “I know she doesn’t need confusion about what she’s supposed to do. trying to pretend she’s a boy is only going to get her into trouble long term. She needs to be encouraged to experiment with things like hair and makeup,instead of cowering in fear that the barbarians are about to come over the wall and rape everything in sight.”
“I don’t want her to cower, I want her to be smart! And that’s what she’s decided to do. It ain’t like I told her she should cut her hair with crazy folks around, she did it herself. So shut and mind yer own damn business.” With a snort, he stormed from the room.