Labyrinth of Emotions – 02.25 ~*~ Lullaby


            Jo sat at the end of the pier, staring out into the turbulent grey water, the same grey as Sam’s eyes Jo was sure. She closed her eyes wondering if the lead she had was right, it couldn’t be, could it? Was she the copy cat killer? Or was it more sinister than that, had this woman been Crystal‘s partner from the beginning? It was too much for Jo‘s mind to accept, it was something more, she could feel it but she just couldn’t get a handle on it. Yet.

            “Fate fights to right its self Jo.” Amy said from behind her, and Jo looked up, sliding the sunglasses off and meeting her love’s green gaze. She could fall into that gaze and live there forever and a day, she touched her cheek the warmth making her feel safe.

            “Yeah, well this time, it’s in for a fight. If you are telling me that Sam should have died on her own, well fuck that. She should be alive and this whole fate things bites.” Jo said, and Amy moved behind her and sat, putting her arms around her.

            “You and the water…” Amy said and Jo leaned back into her, feeling the sweet hug of her arms around her. To bad it wasn’t raining, Jo did her best thinking standing in the rain.

            “How? How could we not have seen this coming? How? Fuck…” Jo said with anger, eyes downcast and Amy put her chin in Jo‘s shoulder, kissing her cheek.

            “Jo, we didn’t do this. We got pulled into this we are not the enemy, and you didn’t do this. It was never our fight we are just observers that are now in the story, but not writing it.” Amy said softly and Jo shook her head.

            “It’s the heart. I am telling you, that heart poisoned her.” Jo said with clenched teeth, and Amy played in her lover’s hair, pulling at the thick mane that sat a top of Jo‘s head.

            “When did you last sleep?” Amy asked and Jo sighed, looking at her watch. She saw the date, and then blinked innocently. She knew this was going to piss off her love and she said in a soft careful voice.

            “That depends…” Jo said and her accent got that much thicker when she was about to tell some sort of joke.

            “On what?” Amy asked, as Jo turned her head, her eyes meeting Amy‘s. Amy‘s eyes narrowed and Jo said in her innocent child like voice.

            “On what day it is.”

*****

            It had been a very long day up at sunrise and her feet ached, her body rebelled and she fought it tooth and nail. Rosita was pushing around the papers that the ever charming Jo Wheaton had left her earlier. There was something every alluring about the woman, but then again, Rosita had found that every woman in her sight was sexy as of late.

            She looked them over and she knew that something was missing in the report, but she was willing to give Jo some leniency. The FBI agent had trusted her with the prelims of the case, and Jo was a very well respected agent, there had to be something to all of this killing.

            Rosita rubbed her eyes, and pulled out a picture from the locked drawer of her desk and looked at it. The ache in her heart was almost too much to bear, but she looked anyway. It was stronger than her, and she liked the dull ache, reminded her that she was alive.

            “Max….” Rosita said, running her thumb over the picture, and sighing and feeling her heart getting heavy again. She stood up, moving to get a bottle of water in the small refrigerator she had in the office.

            She kept seeing her day after day with her children, with her life. She groaned, wanting that life badly it was why she’d agreed to help Tina in the first place. Maybe someone could have that dream, even if it wasn’t her. No Max, no love and just the career she was forging for herself.

            Ro sat on her desk, a sudden way of sickness washed over her. She set her jaw, steeling herself for the next wave. Instead of washing over her, it slammed her down she leaned back the desk and closed her eyes.

            “Mi Dios, what was that?” Ro asked the empty room, she reached for the phone, knocking it down as she past out and crashed to the floor, unconscious.

*****

            Alex got up off the couch and walked to the sun lit back yard, she had slept half of the day away. She felt so much better her back ached from the couch, but at least she wasn’t part of the walking dead anymore.

            “Sleeping on that couch is going to leave you with a stiff neck Alexandria.” Melvin Porter said from his spot on the porch taking in the afternoon sun. Alex looked over, seeing that he had his oxygen tank next to him and a smirk that left Alex wondering who Bette had turned out as normal as she had.

            “First sleep I’ve gotten in two days Sir, I’ll take it any way I can get it, even standing up.” Alex admitted and went to sit next to him, she pulled his wheel chair over to the edge of the pool, locking it and putting her feet in the warm water.

            “Uh huh. Most certainly not my daughter keeping you up late. I’m assuming a case has you burning the candle at both ends?” She coughed, then nodded, Alex nodded also, knowing that she was committed to seeing this through.

            “And the middle too.” Alex said with a chuckle and the man nodded, understanding completely. She stuffed her hands in her jeans, remembering that they were Jo‘s, they were baggy and she felt very comfortable in them.

            “I’ve done that before, but I’m a business man, I admire you people.” He said and Alex cocked an eyebrow and he explained when he looked up and saw the look on her face. “People who serve the community.” He added and Alex nodded, and turned to him, she knelt down, hovering on her feet, in the catcher’s position.

            She remembered when she couldn’t feel her legs, and doing something like this was out of the question, because her balance had always been off. She smiled, thinking Shane had done something right by slamming into her with a truck on that fateful day.

            “Yet you never did?” She asked and she laughed his breath thick as he did. She studied his dark eyes, and saw Bette in them.

            “No, I wrote checks.” He admitted and Alex smiled and he said in a gruff voice.  “Your hair is to short. You also need to get a car.  I heard that thundering bike of yours out front this morning.” He snorted and Alex laughed, she tussled her hair and she snorted at her, and she shook her head.

            “Anything else?” Pez asked and he nodded at her.

            “Yes, as a matter a fact there is. Get me two fingers of whiskey if you’d please?” He said and Alex got up, moving to the house and Jayden shook her head no. She’d been hovering around, listening and doing paperwork.

            “Uh huh, none of that stuff.” Jayden said sitting on the counter and Alex thought she was sexier than sex. She cleared her throat and scoffed at Jayden.

            “Look, he’s dying.  Let him enjoy what he’s got left. You think its easy being alive when you know you are going to die?” Alex asked, pouring the liquid into a glass, and getting a straw for him too. She silently challenged Jayden, and the doctor turned her head.

            “I didn’t see it.” Jayden said and she walked off to watch some TV and doze while Alex bonded with the man. For some reason, Melvin really liked Alex, but disliked Tina, why was that?

            Alex sat down next to Melvin and he took the drink with a shaky hand.

            “Thank you. As much as I like the young doctor Jayden, she is very strict about any sort of extra curricular activities. So tell me, how did an intelligent young lady as yourself come to be a police officer of all things?” He asked, and Alex shrugged and thought about it.

            “My parents, a long story, but I wanted to make sure that someone else’s parents didn’t suffer my fate. I worked as a bartender, put myself through school and started working CS, that’s crime scene, in New York.” She said and he nodded, then made a continuing motion with his hand and Alex leaned back and began to tell her story.  “I was at the WTC when it collapsed.  I got hurt and came out here to be with ‘Nessa. I got better, worked Vice for a while and now I’m back to crime scene.” She said simply leaving out a whole lot of history.

            “Yes, well that is all well and good, but I understand from some of the young ladies that you and Bette shared a lover? That woman that was the serial killer? A smart detective like yourself should have known about that, shouldn’t you have?” He asked the heart piercing, gut wrenching question and she felt compelled to answer.

            “She began after I left her, we had a…..” Pez fought for the words, “Convoluted relationship. She was my controller; I never had to think when I was with her. She took care of everything she was passionate in a way I’d never experienced before. Then the passion turned to control and the control turned to hate and pain.” Alex said, seeing the words on the wall, in blood in her mind’s eye. It’s Not Over Andria…

            “This is what my daughter was seeking? Pain, loss of control?” He asked and she shrugged, and said in a soft voice. Thinking it over for just a moment.

            “Bette was looking for punishment for cheating on Tina. She got that, and much more, don’t you think? She can’t forgive herself because you’ve never accepted her; you’ve never let her be her true self.” Alex said in an even voice, and he chuckled, and handed her the glass.

            “Yes well, there are only so many things I can do before I die.” Alex got up, moving to the kitchen and he said softly. “But making sure my daughter’s are happy will be one of those things I will do.”