fletcher charleston / edward blake (funnypapers) wrote in thereincarnates, @ 2010-10-05 03:32:00 |
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Entry tags: | !au, fletcher charleston, gemma ford |
Who: Fletcher Charleston and Gemma Davenport
What: Sneaking off, dropping revelations.
When: Monday night (in Sideway’s World)
Where: JL’s HQ, Fletcher's office.
Warnings: Angst.
He was still moving a little slowly, after last weeks run in with CORE agents. Moving slowly, and epically pissed, but he so far he’d managed not to to anything stupid. Or stupider than normal. April hadn’t left. He couldn’t bring himself to kick her out, even after all the shit she had pulled. She was, however, completely disbarred from any JL activities, and lucky as hell that it wasn’t even worse. His wife had sold him out, and thanks to that he was sporting a stitched shoulder and a bad attitude. He really hated being shot. It wasn’t one of those things that anyone ever got used to, especially when you were supposed to be meeting your wife for dinner when it happened.
Since April wasn’t allowed at the Justice League HQ, it made it that much easier for him to sneak off and meet Gemma. Normally, he would have felt some low level guilt about this, but not anymore. He couldn’t love someone he couldn’t trust, and he didn’t trust April, not now. Gemma was a completely different story. He trusted her. Loved her. It was just hard, with her being married to someone else. He loathed her husband more than nearly any other person he had ever met. How someone like that had managed to keep such a fantastic family was beyond him. The world may not have been fair, but that was some massive injustice.
Fletcher moved quietly down the hall. It was late, almost everyone else had gone home for the night. There was one person that he was counting on still being around, though. He stepped in to his office, closing the door. She was thinking hard. He could tell, what with the little line between her eyebrows. That made him smile. Completely ignoring the fact that she was on the phone, he circled around behind her desk, brushing the hair away from neck before planting a light kiss there.
---
The past week had been the worst rollercoaster of Gemma’s life. She couldn’t say that April’s betrayal had shocked her, but the fact that Fletcher nearly lost his life because of it was enough to send her into hysterics, at least privately. There weren’t a lot of places she could truly be herself these days. Really, Fletcher’s office was her only option. Privacy was a joke in her own office, knowing her husband. He wasn’t above bugging her office, just because he could. Maybe she was just being paranoid, but after six months of sneaking around behind his back with another man, she felt that her paranoia was justified.
That was why she’d spent the day in New York. She’d gone out of her way to acquire a believable alias and to create a believable alibi for the day, all just to set up one simple doctor’s appointment. But if she was right, and if Charles found out... god, she couldn’t imagine anything worse. And that was the problem. She was right. And now she didn’t know what to do.
When she returned to LA, she went straight to Fletcher’s office. She didn’t know where else to go. She certainly couldn’t go home. It wasn’t until after sunset that she finally worked up the courage to at least call home – not to talk to Charles, but to hear the sound of her daughter’s voice. But Charles was having none of it. He gave the excuse that Allegra was already in bed and he didn’t want to disturb her, but she knew from the sound of his voice that he simply couldn’t be bothered. He had never understood what it was to be a parent, not like Gemma did, and it took all her self-control to keep from hanging up on him. But then Fletcher walked in. She was visibly shocked to see him – she hadn’t expected to see him so soon after...
“... Charles, I have to go,” she coughed hastily into the phone as Fletcher kissed the back of her neck. “I’ll... I’ll be home in a few hours.” Only then did she actually hang up, but now what? She still didn’t know what to do. Leaning her head back against Fletcher’s, she let go of a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. It came out a long, shuddering sigh. She wished she knew what to say to him. There was no good way of saying it. So, for the moment, she didn’t say anything. She just closed her eyes, silently wishing that she’d divorced Charles long ago. Things would be so much simpler...
---
Fletcher stiffened slightly when he found out who she was talking to. He wished Charles would take a hint and leave. Or that Gemma would leave him. He’d never suggested it, though. After all, she had a daughter to think about as well. Not that Fletcher wouldn’t look after the kid, if it came to that. He adored her little girl. There was a carefully drawn picture in crayon tacked behind his desk to prove it. There were others at home, too, from his various attempts at babysitting that usually ended with every pillow in his house stacked in the living room (which always looked like a small tornado had ripped through it).
When she hung up, he gave her shoulders a quick rub. He could read the woman like a book. There was something wrong. Probably not anything he could fix, either. In fact, since she’d just spoken to her husband, it was quite likely his fault. “Long day, darling?” He spun his chair around so that she was facing him. Gently, he ran a finger across her forehead, a sad attempt at trying to smooth out the light stress wrinkles. “What’s wrong?”
---
Gemma laughed mirthlessly, more out of stress than anything else. She was practically at her wit’s end, and him being so absolutely perfect wasn’t helping anything. Or maybe it was. She felt a little better when he touched her, but she still couldn’t bring herself to look him in the eye. It wasn’t that she was ashamed, far from it. She just knew that everything was about to change between them, and as much as she loved him, she wasn’t sure if she was ready for that yet. But she had to be. This wasn’t something she could procrastinate.
“I went to New York today,” she admitted, and she bit her lip as she finally looked up at him. “To... see a doctor. Fletcher, I’m pregnant.”
---
That made him lean back slightly before he froze. She was pregnant? He turned that information over in his head. The very first thing that came to mind was that Charles was a complete bastard who was once against getting something he didn’t deserve. “Well, that’s...” He should be happy for her. He was happy for her. Gemma was a fantastic mother, and would do well with another child. On a completely selfish level, he couldn’t even bring himself to smile.
Unless, of course...it took him awhile to loop back to the other possible conclusion. Scratching the back of his neck, he looked away. If the answer she gave wasn’t the one he wanted, he didn’t want her to be able to see it on his face. “So is it...?” Hell, he couldn’t even get the entire question. Hopefully, she would understand what he was asking without him having to say it.
---
When he looked away, she burst into tears. They were quiet, but she couldn’t hold them back anymore, and the way his shoulders sagged in disappointment sent her over the edge. He thought the baby wasn’t his. Of course he did – she was married to another man, for god’s sake. They already had one child together, so of course he assumed that they’d be having another. That’s what married couples did. But Fletcher didn’t know that Charles hadn’t so much as touched her in nearly six months. He’d lost interest right around the same time she began to find him repulsive, which had worked out in her favor up until now. She could hide Fletcher from Charles in plain sight, but couldn’t hide a pregnancy. She was already starting to get sick in the mornings. Her options right now were very, very limited.
“Yours,” she finished his sentence immediately, in sort of a half-choked sob. She looked pleadingly at his back, tears streaming down her face, eyes begging him to turn around look at her. “The baby’s yours. Well,” she amended as an afterthought. “Ours.” Because, in spite of everything, she was happy. The situation was just so impossible that she couldn’t show it. She hoped he realized that.
---
Oh jesus, she was crying. He could hear it, even if she was trying to stay quiet. It wasn’t until she choked out an answer, almost as soon as he’d finished asking the question, that he turned around. Trying very hard to keep his hands from shaking, he cupped her cheeks, wiping at her tears with his thumbs. “Don’t. It’ll be okay.” He was going to be a father. Just thinking about it made his heart skip a beat. He didn’t consider that it might not be possible for them to have a kid. No matter what else might be going on in their lives, he was going to make this work, no questions asked. Somehow.
Taking a deep breath, he kissed her forehead. “Gemma...I love you.” She looked like she needed to hear it, just like he needed to say it. “I’ll be there for you. However you want to handle this.” There was always that chance that she would want to try to make things work with Charles. He paused, wondering if now was the time to broach this subject. She’d been straightforward with him, though. He should be able to be straight with her. “I’ll take care of you, and the baby. And Allegra. You know that.”
---
Gemma closed her eyes and bit back another sob as she wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his shoulder. He was so good to her, in spite of everything. He was everything she wanted, everything Charles wasn’t. These days, she was only happy when she was with Fletcher, and she was at her happiest when she saw him with Allegra. When she could pretend that Charles and that bitch weren’t in the picture. If they could make that a reality... it was almost too much to hope for.
“I know.” Her voice was small, a sort of bittersweet sigh, and she raised her head just enough to give him a short but grateful kiss. “I love you, too. It’s just... it’s not fair.” Her face clouded again and more tears threatened to spill over, but she didn’t let them. She put a lot of effort into holding herself back, but even that didn’t stop her voice from breaking. “Being with you, being happy – it shouldn’t be this hard.”
---
He held her close, running a hand over her hair while ignoring the stiffness that came with trying to use his wounded arm. Everything was so screwed up. If he’d been smart, he would have left April a whole lot sooner. That would have saved him the trouble of getting shot, and having to put Gemma through the stress of knowing that he was still married as well. At some point in their conversation, he’d made up his mind about his wife without actually realizing it. There was no way he could stay with her now. At least he would have a small pile of excuses to pick from. After everything April had pulled, she couldn’t really expect them to stay married.
“No, it shouldn’t.” He smoothed the hair away from her face. It shouldn’t be like this. They were having a child. It should be good news, the best news. Instead, she was crying and he was plotting what he was sure was going to be a messy divorce. When had everything gotten so screwed up. “And it doesn’t have to be.” Fletcher put his hands on her shoulders, pushing her back just far enough so that she could look him in the face. There was a fierce, determined gleam in his eyes. “Leave him, Gemma. Take Allegra and leave him. Come and stay with me.”
---
She looked up at him through her eyelashes, wishing she could match his determination, but she couldn’t. She already felt defeated and she hadn’t even begun to fight yet. If Fletcher knew Charles they way she did, he would’ve understood why. There was, after all, a reason why she hadn’t divorced him yet. And that reason was Allegra.
“It’s... not that simple, Fletcher.” She swallowed hard, trying to find the words to continue. This wasn’t easy to explain. “He doesn’t care about us, but he does take us for granted. If I... left him like that, he would consider it an insult. And he’d do everything in his power to take Allegra away from me. I can’t let that happen. I just can’t.” She took a deep breath to calm herself before she got too panicky. “There are a lot of things I’ll risk for you, Fletcher, but losing her is not one of them. This has to be handled carefully. And he can’t know anything about you before the divorce is finalized. I have plenty of reasons to leave him without bringing you into the picture. I just need to find one that will let him let me go.”
---
Of course that bastard would complicate things. It made his blood boil, knowing that Charles had Gemma this upset and unhappy. She deserved better than that. He wanted to give her better now, not after she went through the roller coaster of a divorce. “No, I know that.” If he’d thought for a second that his being around was compromising Gemma’s relationship with her daughter, he would have stepped back. He would never ask her to choose him over her, especially not when he wanted them both. He wasn’t about to let Charles’s legal games get in the way of that.
“If that’s the case, then you’d best hurry. Otherwise it will be a bit hard to hide exactly why.” When all this came out, it was going to be a circus. He would rather get it out of the way now, before they had a newborn baby to look after. For Gemma’s sake, though, he would hide it for as long as he could. Even if he was feeling a bit impatient. He didn’t want Charles anywhere around his unborn child. Just the thought of her having to go home to him made his skin crawl. “I want you with me, Gemma. Both of you. All of you.” He tilted her chin back so that he could give her a quick kiss. “So it looks like I’ll be needing a lawyer as well.”
---
“I will,” Gemma insisted hurriedly. “I will. I don’t want this to last any longer than it has to. If I handle this right, it won’t last very long at all. Charles will want to move on quickly. Once he wants something out of his life, he doesn’t waste any time getting rid of it. So that’s...” She struggled to find the right adjective. There were a lot that came to mind, but she finally settled on one with a small smile. “Helpful?” Charles may have been a bastard, but at least he was a reliable one.
Her smile widened when he kissed her, and for the first time all day, she started to relax. But that didn’t quite mean that she was ready to let go of him yet. She only had a limited amount of time left with him tonight, and she intended to spend every remaining minute here in his arms. She was careful not to put too much pressure on his wounded shoulder, though, if only because it infuriated her that he even had a wounded shoulder. Considering how emotional she’d been all day, it was probably best that she didn’t let her thoughts linger on that for too long. She raised an eyebrow at him, half amused and half wary. “Are you suggesting that I represent you? Because I think that might be pushing our luck a little. And even though I’d love nothing more than to give that b–” She cut herself off and made a face. “Well. I’m sure you can imagine the end of that sentence.”
---
“Mmm. Helpful.” The sooner he was out of everyone’s lives, the better. Fletcher was hoping that once he was gone, he would stay gone. Not keep lurking around trying to stir shit up. The same went for April. He’d have to make it very clear that their marriage was over, because he knew that she wouldn’t go easily. After all, she’d done a lot of begging and crying in the immediate aftermath of his ‘accident’. Chances were, he would have to brace for more of that. Normally he was a complete sucker for crying women, but he didn’t think she would have that kind of affect on him anymore.
He wrapped an arm around her waist, moving her around until she was braced against his desk. Smiling down at her, he shook his head. “No. That would probably make this a fiasco.” It was hard for him to hide the fact that he wanted to laugh. That wasn’t very nice of him, but it wasn’t his fault Gemma’s half-finished statement was accurate. “Oh, I can.” Bending down, he kissed her thoroughly. They probably didn’t have much more time tonight, and he wanted to make it count. When he pulled away, he rested his forehead against her. “The next time you run off to see this doctor, I’d like to go with you. If you don’t mind.”
---
“You say that like it’s not already a fiasco...” She pouted, but only just a little, and not for very long. It was hard to pout when he was kissing her like that, and when he pulled her away, she was smiling again, genuinely and what felt like the first time in ages. She had been so caught up in worrying that it never really hit her – she was having a baby. Fletcher’s baby. The man she loved, and the man she would marry, even if it was the last thing she did. It was going to take some time, but they would be happy together, have a family together. If nothing else, that would keep her going, and it would make short, precious nights like these worth it in the long run. She was sure of that.
She closed her eyes and kissed his cheek softly. “Of course. I have another appointment in a few weeks. We’ll go together.” She sighed and opened her eyes, and her gaze fell upon his wounded shoulder. Very gently, she moved to touch it, but changed her mind at the last second and caressed his arm instead. “But enough about me. How are you feeling?”
---
“I’ll make sure to be there.” She looked a little happier now, which cheered him up some as well. He’d never been good at sitting idly by while Gemma was upset. They had plenty to be happy about, though. Despite the gigantic drama that was about to unfold around them, they were still going to be parents. He was going to get a family that he loved more than anything. Children that he was damn determined to be a good father to. It would all be okay. All they had to do was get over this rough spot, and it would be fine.
Fletcher rolled his shoulder, trying hard not to wince. “Fine. Better every day.” He smiled at her. She’d been worried about him, he knew it, and it was a refreshing change from having to listen to someone try to flip it around and make it his fault that he’d been shot at. April really did have the most creative excuses. Even if his shoulder did still throb like a bitch, he knew it could have been a lot worse. They hadn’t gone there to hurt him. They’d gone there to kill him. Years later and he was still considered something of a traitor, which made him a high profile target. It was luck more than anything that had gotten him out of there alive. “I’ll survive, that’s the important part.” What was one more scar, anyway? He was already crisscrossed with them. The war hadn’t been particularly kind at times.
With his good arm, he hoisted her up on to the desk. “That’s enough worrying for tonight, I think.” He kissed her neck affectionately, letting his lips trail up until they caught hers. This was all that mattered.
---
A small noise caught in the back of her throat as he lifted her onto the desk, which turned into a soft laugh once she felt his lips on her skin. She closed her eyes and just let herself enjoy the feeling, just for now, memorizing it so she could savor it later. She didn’t know how she had lived before she met Fletcher. Charles never kissed her like this, never made her feel this. And she’d never told Fletcher this, but when she’d first told Charles she was pregnant with Allegra, he’d barely even reacted. He told her that he didn’t have time for a baby, so she’d have to take of it herself. It. If she’d been smart, she would’ve left him then and there, but at the time she thought he deserved a chance to be a good father, even though deep down she knew he wouldn’t be. Fletcher’s reaction, in comparison, was more than she ever hoped for. He wanted to take care of her, the baby, and Allegra. She didn’t think it was possible for her to love him more than she already did, but then, Fletcher always surprised her. She loved him for that, too.
When he finally found her lips, she kissed him back deeply, her fingers gently intertwining in his hair. She loved him so much, and she knew that would never change. When she finally pulled away, she chuckled dryly and rested her forehead against his. “I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough worrying for a lifetime.” She sighed and closed her eyes. They were feeling a little heavy and swollen, which was unfamiliar to her. She hardly ever cried. But that didn’t stop her from smiling ironically. “Thank goodness we’re having a baby, huh?”