Fic: Growing Up Dorian: Chapter 5/7
Title: Growing Up Dorian
Chapter: 5
Author: nighthawkms (beta'd by mostepotente
Genre: Future!Fic, Possibly AU
Chapter Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Slash, Obscenities, Angst, Character Death
Chapter Pairing:(s) Click to be Spoiled: Sam/Jenny, JD/Cox
Summary: Excerpts from the childhood of Sam Dorian Jr.
Disclaimer: Scrubs is the property of Bill Lawrence and I guess ABC network nowadays. I don't own it, I'm just playing in the 'verse!
Notes: Back with a new chapter. Finally figured out how many chapters this ends up getting divided into. This is probably one of my favorite chapters, hope you enjoy!
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Sam would be lying if he didn’t admit that this experience was bringing back memories of four years ago. Sacred Heart hadn’t changed much since last time; same drab white walls in the ER, same doctors running back and forth around him; same nurses at the desk…
“Mrs. Turk!” Jenny cried out, tugging Sam forward as Jack followed behind them.
“Jenny?” Mrs. Turk walked out from her workstation to greet them. “Jack too? Why are you two here?”
“I wanted them to come,” Sam said. “Where’s my dad? Is he okay?”
“Oh honey, they didn’t tell you?” Mrs. Turk smiled and patted him on the shoulder. “You’re dad’s fine. He had a blockage in an artery but they dissolved it. His cholesterol is through the roof though; he’s gonna have to start eating better.” She pointed down the hall to a doorway. “He’s resting in a patient room now; you can go and see him.”
A wave of relief swept over Sam as he dashed past Mrs. Turk and down the hall, coming to stop outside of his dad’s door with a sudden hesitation. She said he’d be alright, but what was Sam going to see when he went in there…
“Hey.” Sam felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to look back at Jenny. “He’ll be fine. I’m sure he really wants to see you.” He nodded at her, then turned back to the door, took a deep breath, and opened it.
It wasn’t as bad as he’d thought it would be. His dad was hooked up to an IV and a heart monitor, but other than that, he looked like he was just sleeping. Which was probably the case, in retrospect.
Sam walked up to the side of the bed and watched as his dad shifted and opened his eyes, smiling weakly up at him. “Hey Sammy,” he said, reaching a hand up to pat his son’s arm. “Hope I didn’t interrupt anything important at school.”
“Who cares about school!” Sam yelped, leaning forward to give his dad a hug. “I told you to stop ordering takeout for dinner when I stay at mom’s, and now it’s back to bite you in the ass.”
“Yes dad,” his dad replied, smirking at him when Sam pulled back. “Don’t worry; I’m sure you’re not the only one who’s going to be chewing me out.” Only now did he seem to notice Jenny and Jack. “What are you two doing here?”
“Jack brought us, Mr. D,” Jenny said, going over and giving him a hug. “You should hear his impression of Dad; it’s spot on.”
“Hrm, knew Perry wouldn’t let you out of school for this, missy. He’s huffing and puffing around here somewhere; I was talking to him on break when my heart decided to go bye-bye. Just hope he calms down before he finds out about this or you’ll be dead.”
“He doesn’t have to find out; he can just think that we showed up after my school day was over…”
“Oh no, I am not lying to your father for you; believe me, it won’t end well for either of us.”
“You don’t have to lie; you just don’t have to mention this.”
“Ohoho, see kids, Newbie’s known me long enough to know that neither of those options ever works out when it comes to trying to keep the truth from old Perry Cox.” Sam watched as Jenny visibly gulped and turned around to see Mr. Cox leaning against the doorway, arms folded and looking very displeased.
“Hey Dad,” Jack said quickly, heading for the door. “I’m just gonna go now-”
“Don’t think you’re going anywhere; either of you,” Mr. Cox said. “Which one of you kids cooked up this hair-brained scheme? Sam’s the only one with any reason to be here right now, when I know both of you are supposed to be in classes.”
Sam was very glad at this moment that he was not Mr. Cox’s son, because he would never manage to put up an effective argument against him in the way Jenny could, and was doing right now. “Come on Dad, school was almost over anyway. It’s not like I missed much. Besides, Sam needed both my physical and mental support in this time of crisis!”
“What psychology textbook did you lift that line from? Because I don’t believe for a second that that was your intention for getting out of class early, Jennifer Dylan.”
Jenny frowned and folded her arms. “Then you don’t know me very well, Dad.”
They stared at each other for several moments before Mr. Cox sighed. “Fine, stay for now. But you brother is taking you home by six at the latest.” He looked at Sammy now. “I called your mom; she’ll be on her way.” Then before either of them could answer him, Mr. Cox walked out.
“Jenny, can you teach me how to get your father to cave like that? Because I still can’t figure it out.”
Jenny smirked at Sam’s dad and shook her head. “C’mon Mr. Dorian, I’m his daughter, he’s supposed to cave to me.”
~
Mr. Cox made Jack take Jenny home at six, just like he’d said. Jenny was surprisingly obedient about it, and the way she was smirking at Sam when she left… well, Sam had a feeling that somehow, she would be back.
As for him, Sam had told his mom when she showed up that he wanted to stay over at the hospital with Dad for the night. It was Friday, which meant he wouldn’t have to get up early for school, and he was honestly still feeling a little anxious after everything that had gone on today. Dad hadn’t objected (“If you want to sleep on our horrible makeshift cots, I guess you can stay. Just be warned that if the janitor offers to fix the springs, do not take him up on it”) and so he asked Mrs. Turk to get him a cot and helped her set it up next to his dad’s bed.
Sam got food from the cafeteria and ate dinner with his dad, talking to Mr. and Mrs. Turk whenever they stopped in to say hi. Mr. Cox didn’t return for the rest of the day. “He’s probably as pissed at me about eating badly as you were,” Dad said, grinning at Sam. “You’re not the only one who’s been berating me about that.”
“Well duh, Dad. Look what happened.”
“Duly noted.” His dad picked up the remote and flipped on the TV attached to the wall. “So what are we gonna watch?”
Later that night, when his dad was asleep, and he was lying on the cot unable to do so, Sam heard the creak of the door, and twisted his head back to see Jenny slipping inside the room. She caught his eye and grinned at him, then tiptoed over to his cot.
“Let me on, would ya?” she whispered. Sam rolled his eyes but lifted the blanket, and she lay down next to him on his left, facing him and keeping her voice quiet to not wake Sam’s dad. “I finally bugged Jack enough to drive me back here. He’s gonna come pick me up tomorrow morning before Dad realizes I’m not home.”
“Won’t your dad check on you tonight?”
Jenny scoffed and punched his shoulder. “Don’t be stupid; he’s on call all night tonight. He’ll probably sleep in the doctor’s lounge and then stay here all day tomorrow.”
“Right, sorry… you said he does that a lot.”
“Since mom died, at least,” she said, yawning and curling up against him. Sam rested an arm over her waist and closed his eyes. He had a momentary thought: what will Mr. Cox do if he catches us in here... probably won’t kill me with Dad in the room. Go Dad!
They didn’t speak after that. Sam drifted in and out of consciousness until he heard the door creak again. “Why is my daughter back here?” the voice muttered, and Sam froze, refusing to turn over because he knew it was Mr. Cox.
“Chill, Perry,” he heard his dad say. When did he wake up? “You really think I’d let them do anything while I was in the room? Hell, you think they’d even try something while I was in here?”
Sam felt Jenny’s head shift and glanced down to see her peeking up at him. She pressed a finger to her lips to signal him to be quiet, and mouthed ‘let’s just listen’ to him.
“I’m gonna kill her,” Mr. Cox muttered. There was a mirror across from Sam’s line of sight on the wall, and he could see Mr. Cox striding over towards his dad’s bed, stopping and leaning against the side. “No, scratch that; I’ll kill Jack first and then lock her up in a high tower for your evil kid to never touch.”
Hey! Sam thought as he heard his dad laugh softly. “Oh come on, you know Jenny’s the evil mastermind. It’s in her blood.”
“That it is…” Sam watched as the mirror image of Mr. Cox shifted and shook his head. “What I don’t get, Newbie, is how you could be so utterly stupid as to do this to yourself. Your father died of a heart attack, and you know you’re higher risk for one, but yet you continued on this idiotic path of overworking and eating whatever crap the cafeteria could throw at you.”
Sam’s dad shrugged. “I could ask you the same questions.”
Mr. Cox frowned. “Don’t make this about me,” he said. “I may overwork but I still have the body of a god and I’m a good fifteen years older than you.”
“Also have the ego of one.”
“Christ, Newbie.” Mr. Cox looked like he wanted to slam his fists against something. Instead he leaned forwards towards Sam’s dad and spoke more quietly. “Stop doing this to yourself. I don’t have the energy to deal with you offing yourself.”
“What’s it to you? You’re not my mentor anymore; hell, you barely act like a friend. We haven’t had an actual conversation since-”
“Don’t talk about that night!” Mr. Cox hissed, and Sam almost flinched at the sound but forced himself to stay still. He glanced down at Jenny, who was looking at him with equal confusion. What night? “You’d think you could’ve given up your whiny little obsession by now, and it must’ve been a pretty special experience for you, princess, but face it; it’s not gonna happen again!”
“…don’t you dare make this about me.” Sam could only describe his dad’s expression as a cross between angry and… miserable. “You asked me for one night because you needed some relief from the pain, even though you knew full well how I felt, and I gave it to you because I couldn’t refuse it… couldn’t refuse you. All I want is… all I want is what we had, whatever it was, back.”
“…stop living in your fantasy world, Newbie. It’s not going to happen.” Mr. Cox turned away from the bed and swiftly made his way out, shutting the door with a click behind him.
“Damn it, Perry…” Sam watched in the mirror as his dad turned his back to them and quieted down. Then he looked back to Jenny, whose eyebrows seemed to be trying to jump off her forehead.
‘What the hell?’ She mouthed to him. Sam shrugged, thinking to himself. What had Mr. Cox and his dad been talking about? One night… dad gave him something… obsession…?
One night…
Sam suppressed a gasp as thoughts came rushing into his head, memories… Dad, you like girls, right? (sometimes, a boy and a boy love each other like that too) Did you ever love a boy? (once I did, but he didn’t love me back) You ready, Perry? (if we’re going to do this, then we need to rent hotel room. Keep the kids out of it) Let’s do this.
Oh god, Sam thought. He- they- He glanced down at Jenny quickly, wanting to tell her what he was thinking… but she was already asleep. Damn it! Maybe he should wake her… No, she’ll bite my head off. God, why did he have to figure things out at the worst time ever?
And I thought the day couldn’t get any crappier…
~~~~~
Sam was awake the next morning before Jenny (because of course, today had to be the day that she didn’t want to wake up and just wanted to snuggle next to him and wrap around him like a leech and it felt really nice but still… crap). When she finally did wake up, the first thing he did was to pull her out of the room, keeping quiet to not disturb his dad, who was still asleep, and brought her down to the hospital cafeteria.
“Coffee, here, drink,” Sam said, plopping a cup down in front of her. She raised an eyebrow and picked the cup up, sipping from it.
“What the hell is your problem?” She said after finishing the cup (oh good, she was cranky this morning… she’s cranky every morning, you idiot). “What’s got your panties in a twist?”
“You recall any of the conversation that our dads had last night?”
“Yeah…” Jenny scrunched up her face in thought, then nodded. “My dad was yelling at your dad about something as usual and your dad got all defensive; god, he needs to learn how to take Dad’s ranting better or at least how to throw him off.”
“That’s not the point!” Sam yelped. “I- I think I figured out what they were talking about.”
“So what did you deduce, Sally Sherlock?”
“This is going to sound crazy but… I think they had a one-night stand.”
Jenny stared at him, dumbfounded for a moment, before bursting out into laughter. “Oh that is rich. What are you going to say next, that they’re in love and want to go bouncing off to San Francisco together?” When Sam didn’t say anything, her expression got serious. “Sam, that’s insane. You’re insane!”
“Am I?” Sam muttered, glancing around to make sure no one was listening to them (he thought he spotted a tall guy in a blue jumpsuit behind the lunch counter staring at him, but a second later the guy was spooning eggs onto a plate and ignoring them). “They kept on talking about ‘one night’ they had together, and you know my dad’s bisexual, and…” he paused, not sure he should tell her about this, but… “Back when… they had your mom’s wake, I caught our dads talking in an empty room in the funeral parlor about something. My dad said they needed to rent a hotel room and keep us all out of whatever they were doing. I think… I think they did that and that’s why we went to Mr. and Mrs. Turk’s house and our dads came and picked us up late.”
“You seriously got all of this out of two stupid conversations? You probably don’t even remember them that well!”
“I do!” Sam growled, frustrated. “Look, my dad told me once that he loved a guy but the guy never loved him back. I… I think that was your dad!”
“So why the hell would my dad do… that with your dad if he didn’t feel the same way?”
“…Maybe my dad was wrong? Or maybe because your mom was still- oh shit,” he said, covering his mouth when he saw Jenny’s eyes go wide. “I’msorryIdidn’tmeanitthatway!”
“Fuck you, Sam!” Jenny hissed, springing up out of her seat. Sam flinched; he could see tears at the corner of her eyes. You idiot, you know she’s sensitive about her mom! “You’re wrong! Dad loved mom!” He tried to grab her wrist but she sprinted around the table and out of the cafeteria doors.
Sam thought about going after her, looking at the door for a long time. But… she needed her space. She had a right to be pissed, after all. How could Mr. Cox and Dad have done this? For god’s sake, Mrs. Sullivan wasn’t dead for four days before they were…
You asked me for one night because you needed some relief from the pain, even though you knew full well how I felt, and I gave it to you because I couldn’t refuse it… couldn’t refuse you. All I want is… all I want is what we had, whatever it was, back.
It’s true, Sam thought, sipping his coffee and staring blankly at the chair in front of him. My dad’s in love… with Mr. Cox.
But is Mr. Cox in love with my dad?
Next Chapter
Chapter: 5
Author: nighthawkms (beta'd by mostepotente
Genre: Future!Fic, Possibly AU
Chapter Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Slash, Obscenities, Angst, Character Death
Chapter Pairing:(s) Click to be Spoiled: Sam/Jenny, JD/Cox
Summary: Excerpts from the childhood of Sam Dorian Jr.
Disclaimer: Scrubs is the property of Bill Lawrence and I guess ABC network nowadays. I don't own it, I'm just playing in the 'verse!
Notes: Back with a new chapter. Finally figured out how many chapters this ends up getting divided into. This is probably one of my favorite chapters, hope you enjoy!
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Sam would be lying if he didn’t admit that this experience was bringing back memories of four years ago. Sacred Heart hadn’t changed much since last time; same drab white walls in the ER, same doctors running back and forth around him; same nurses at the desk…
“Mrs. Turk!” Jenny cried out, tugging Sam forward as Jack followed behind them.
“Jenny?” Mrs. Turk walked out from her workstation to greet them. “Jack too? Why are you two here?”
“I wanted them to come,” Sam said. “Where’s my dad? Is he okay?”
“Oh honey, they didn’t tell you?” Mrs. Turk smiled and patted him on the shoulder. “You’re dad’s fine. He had a blockage in an artery but they dissolved it. His cholesterol is through the roof though; he’s gonna have to start eating better.” She pointed down the hall to a doorway. “He’s resting in a patient room now; you can go and see him.”
A wave of relief swept over Sam as he dashed past Mrs. Turk and down the hall, coming to stop outside of his dad’s door with a sudden hesitation. She said he’d be alright, but what was Sam going to see when he went in there…
“Hey.” Sam felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to look back at Jenny. “He’ll be fine. I’m sure he really wants to see you.” He nodded at her, then turned back to the door, took a deep breath, and opened it.
It wasn’t as bad as he’d thought it would be. His dad was hooked up to an IV and a heart monitor, but other than that, he looked like he was just sleeping. Which was probably the case, in retrospect.
Sam walked up to the side of the bed and watched as his dad shifted and opened his eyes, smiling weakly up at him. “Hey Sammy,” he said, reaching a hand up to pat his son’s arm. “Hope I didn’t interrupt anything important at school.”
“Who cares about school!” Sam yelped, leaning forward to give his dad a hug. “I told you to stop ordering takeout for dinner when I stay at mom’s, and now it’s back to bite you in the ass.”
“Yes dad,” his dad replied, smirking at him when Sam pulled back. “Don’t worry; I’m sure you’re not the only one who’s going to be chewing me out.” Only now did he seem to notice Jenny and Jack. “What are you two doing here?”
“Jack brought us, Mr. D,” Jenny said, going over and giving him a hug. “You should hear his impression of Dad; it’s spot on.”
“Hrm, knew Perry wouldn’t let you out of school for this, missy. He’s huffing and puffing around here somewhere; I was talking to him on break when my heart decided to go bye-bye. Just hope he calms down before he finds out about this or you’ll be dead.”
“He doesn’t have to find out; he can just think that we showed up after my school day was over…”
“Oh no, I am not lying to your father for you; believe me, it won’t end well for either of us.”
“You don’t have to lie; you just don’t have to mention this.”
“Ohoho, see kids, Newbie’s known me long enough to know that neither of those options ever works out when it comes to trying to keep the truth from old Perry Cox.” Sam watched as Jenny visibly gulped and turned around to see Mr. Cox leaning against the doorway, arms folded and looking very displeased.
“Hey Dad,” Jack said quickly, heading for the door. “I’m just gonna go now-”
“Don’t think you’re going anywhere; either of you,” Mr. Cox said. “Which one of you kids cooked up this hair-brained scheme? Sam’s the only one with any reason to be here right now, when I know both of you are supposed to be in classes.”
Sam was very glad at this moment that he was not Mr. Cox’s son, because he would never manage to put up an effective argument against him in the way Jenny could, and was doing right now. “Come on Dad, school was almost over anyway. It’s not like I missed much. Besides, Sam needed both my physical and mental support in this time of crisis!”
“What psychology textbook did you lift that line from? Because I don’t believe for a second that that was your intention for getting out of class early, Jennifer Dylan.”
Jenny frowned and folded her arms. “Then you don’t know me very well, Dad.”
They stared at each other for several moments before Mr. Cox sighed. “Fine, stay for now. But you brother is taking you home by six at the latest.” He looked at Sammy now. “I called your mom; she’ll be on her way.” Then before either of them could answer him, Mr. Cox walked out.
“Jenny, can you teach me how to get your father to cave like that? Because I still can’t figure it out.”
Jenny smirked at Sam’s dad and shook her head. “C’mon Mr. Dorian, I’m his daughter, he’s supposed to cave to me.”
~
Mr. Cox made Jack take Jenny home at six, just like he’d said. Jenny was surprisingly obedient about it, and the way she was smirking at Sam when she left… well, Sam had a feeling that somehow, she would be back.
As for him, Sam had told his mom when she showed up that he wanted to stay over at the hospital with Dad for the night. It was Friday, which meant he wouldn’t have to get up early for school, and he was honestly still feeling a little anxious after everything that had gone on today. Dad hadn’t objected (“If you want to sleep on our horrible makeshift cots, I guess you can stay. Just be warned that if the janitor offers to fix the springs, do not take him up on it”) and so he asked Mrs. Turk to get him a cot and helped her set it up next to his dad’s bed.
Sam got food from the cafeteria and ate dinner with his dad, talking to Mr. and Mrs. Turk whenever they stopped in to say hi. Mr. Cox didn’t return for the rest of the day. “He’s probably as pissed at me about eating badly as you were,” Dad said, grinning at Sam. “You’re not the only one who’s been berating me about that.”
“Well duh, Dad. Look what happened.”
“Duly noted.” His dad picked up the remote and flipped on the TV attached to the wall. “So what are we gonna watch?”
Later that night, when his dad was asleep, and he was lying on the cot unable to do so, Sam heard the creak of the door, and twisted his head back to see Jenny slipping inside the room. She caught his eye and grinned at him, then tiptoed over to his cot.
“Let me on, would ya?” she whispered. Sam rolled his eyes but lifted the blanket, and she lay down next to him on his left, facing him and keeping her voice quiet to not wake Sam’s dad. “I finally bugged Jack enough to drive me back here. He’s gonna come pick me up tomorrow morning before Dad realizes I’m not home.”
“Won’t your dad check on you tonight?”
Jenny scoffed and punched his shoulder. “Don’t be stupid; he’s on call all night tonight. He’ll probably sleep in the doctor’s lounge and then stay here all day tomorrow.”
“Right, sorry… you said he does that a lot.”
“Since mom died, at least,” she said, yawning and curling up against him. Sam rested an arm over her waist and closed his eyes. He had a momentary thought: what will Mr. Cox do if he catches us in here... probably won’t kill me with Dad in the room. Go Dad!
They didn’t speak after that. Sam drifted in and out of consciousness until he heard the door creak again. “Why is my daughter back here?” the voice muttered, and Sam froze, refusing to turn over because he knew it was Mr. Cox.
“Chill, Perry,” he heard his dad say. When did he wake up? “You really think I’d let them do anything while I was in the room? Hell, you think they’d even try something while I was in here?”
Sam felt Jenny’s head shift and glanced down to see her peeking up at him. She pressed a finger to her lips to signal him to be quiet, and mouthed ‘let’s just listen’ to him.
“I’m gonna kill her,” Mr. Cox muttered. There was a mirror across from Sam’s line of sight on the wall, and he could see Mr. Cox striding over towards his dad’s bed, stopping and leaning against the side. “No, scratch that; I’ll kill Jack first and then lock her up in a high tower for your evil kid to never touch.”
Hey! Sam thought as he heard his dad laugh softly. “Oh come on, you know Jenny’s the evil mastermind. It’s in her blood.”
“That it is…” Sam watched as the mirror image of Mr. Cox shifted and shook his head. “What I don’t get, Newbie, is how you could be so utterly stupid as to do this to yourself. Your father died of a heart attack, and you know you’re higher risk for one, but yet you continued on this idiotic path of overworking and eating whatever crap the cafeteria could throw at you.”
Sam’s dad shrugged. “I could ask you the same questions.”
Mr. Cox frowned. “Don’t make this about me,” he said. “I may overwork but I still have the body of a god and I’m a good fifteen years older than you.”
“Also have the ego of one.”
“Christ, Newbie.” Mr. Cox looked like he wanted to slam his fists against something. Instead he leaned forwards towards Sam’s dad and spoke more quietly. “Stop doing this to yourself. I don’t have the energy to deal with you offing yourself.”
“What’s it to you? You’re not my mentor anymore; hell, you barely act like a friend. We haven’t had an actual conversation since-”
“Don’t talk about that night!” Mr. Cox hissed, and Sam almost flinched at the sound but forced himself to stay still. He glanced down at Jenny, who was looking at him with equal confusion. What night? “You’d think you could’ve given up your whiny little obsession by now, and it must’ve been a pretty special experience for you, princess, but face it; it’s not gonna happen again!”
“…don’t you dare make this about me.” Sam could only describe his dad’s expression as a cross between angry and… miserable. “You asked me for one night because you needed some relief from the pain, even though you knew full well how I felt, and I gave it to you because I couldn’t refuse it… couldn’t refuse you. All I want is… all I want is what we had, whatever it was, back.”
“…stop living in your fantasy world, Newbie. It’s not going to happen.” Mr. Cox turned away from the bed and swiftly made his way out, shutting the door with a click behind him.
“Damn it, Perry…” Sam watched in the mirror as his dad turned his back to them and quieted down. Then he looked back to Jenny, whose eyebrows seemed to be trying to jump off her forehead.
‘What the hell?’ She mouthed to him. Sam shrugged, thinking to himself. What had Mr. Cox and his dad been talking about? One night… dad gave him something… obsession…?
One night…
Sam suppressed a gasp as thoughts came rushing into his head, memories… Dad, you like girls, right? (sometimes, a boy and a boy love each other like that too) Did you ever love a boy? (once I did, but he didn’t love me back) You ready, Perry? (if we’re going to do this, then we need to rent hotel room. Keep the kids out of it) Let’s do this.
Oh god, Sam thought. He- they- He glanced down at Jenny quickly, wanting to tell her what he was thinking… but she was already asleep. Damn it! Maybe he should wake her… No, she’ll bite my head off. God, why did he have to figure things out at the worst time ever?
And I thought the day couldn’t get any crappier…
~~~~~
Sam was awake the next morning before Jenny (because of course, today had to be the day that she didn’t want to wake up and just wanted to snuggle next to him and wrap around him like a leech and it felt really nice but still… crap). When she finally did wake up, the first thing he did was to pull her out of the room, keeping quiet to not disturb his dad, who was still asleep, and brought her down to the hospital cafeteria.
“Coffee, here, drink,” Sam said, plopping a cup down in front of her. She raised an eyebrow and picked the cup up, sipping from it.
“What the hell is your problem?” She said after finishing the cup (oh good, she was cranky this morning… she’s cranky every morning, you idiot). “What’s got your panties in a twist?”
“You recall any of the conversation that our dads had last night?”
“Yeah…” Jenny scrunched up her face in thought, then nodded. “My dad was yelling at your dad about something as usual and your dad got all defensive; god, he needs to learn how to take Dad’s ranting better or at least how to throw him off.”
“That’s not the point!” Sam yelped. “I- I think I figured out what they were talking about.”
“So what did you deduce, Sally Sherlock?”
“This is going to sound crazy but… I think they had a one-night stand.”
Jenny stared at him, dumbfounded for a moment, before bursting out into laughter. “Oh that is rich. What are you going to say next, that they’re in love and want to go bouncing off to San Francisco together?” When Sam didn’t say anything, her expression got serious. “Sam, that’s insane. You’re insane!”
“Am I?” Sam muttered, glancing around to make sure no one was listening to them (he thought he spotted a tall guy in a blue jumpsuit behind the lunch counter staring at him, but a second later the guy was spooning eggs onto a plate and ignoring them). “They kept on talking about ‘one night’ they had together, and you know my dad’s bisexual, and…” he paused, not sure he should tell her about this, but… “Back when… they had your mom’s wake, I caught our dads talking in an empty room in the funeral parlor about something. My dad said they needed to rent a hotel room and keep us all out of whatever they were doing. I think… I think they did that and that’s why we went to Mr. and Mrs. Turk’s house and our dads came and picked us up late.”
“You seriously got all of this out of two stupid conversations? You probably don’t even remember them that well!”
“I do!” Sam growled, frustrated. “Look, my dad told me once that he loved a guy but the guy never loved him back. I… I think that was your dad!”
“So why the hell would my dad do… that with your dad if he didn’t feel the same way?”
“…Maybe my dad was wrong? Or maybe because your mom was still- oh shit,” he said, covering his mouth when he saw Jenny’s eyes go wide. “I’msorryIdidn’tmeanitthatway!”
“Fuck you, Sam!” Jenny hissed, springing up out of her seat. Sam flinched; he could see tears at the corner of her eyes. You idiot, you know she’s sensitive about her mom! “You’re wrong! Dad loved mom!” He tried to grab her wrist but she sprinted around the table and out of the cafeteria doors.
Sam thought about going after her, looking at the door for a long time. But… she needed her space. She had a right to be pissed, after all. How could Mr. Cox and Dad have done this? For god’s sake, Mrs. Sullivan wasn’t dead for four days before they were…
You asked me for one night because you needed some relief from the pain, even though you knew full well how I felt, and I gave it to you because I couldn’t refuse it… couldn’t refuse you. All I want is… all I want is what we had, whatever it was, back.
It’s true, Sam thought, sipping his coffee and staring blankly at the chair in front of him. My dad’s in love… with Mr. Cox.
But is Mr. Cox in love with my dad?
Next Chapter