Days Behind - Chapter 17
Once again, the phone rang as Jensen was trying to process everything that had just happened.
“Holy shit, Ackles, you seen what they’re saying about you?”
“Good afternoon to you too, Chris.”
“I’m not joking here, man. This is bad press.”
“Crap. Hang on. Let me get up.” He looked around for something to use to haul himself up.
“How about you just bounce up and open this fucking door?” There was a definite banging now that Jensen listened.
Jensen sighed as an answer and hung up before doing just as Christian said. “Just what is the big emergency?”
Christian thrust the magazine into Jensen’s hands. “Have you seen this?”
Jensen rolled his eyes. “Always so dramatic…SHIT. I was hoping this was a bad dream.”
Looking back up at Jensen was another giant headline proclaiming that Jensen was the father of her baby. The girl’s face was blacked out with a dot, but the cover promised ‘pix inside’.
“Told ya.” Christian wandered into the kitchen. “Whadd’aya got to eat?” Christian mumbled as he stuck his head in the fridge.
“You can have whatever…Chris?” Jensen sank into the couch.
“Yeah, buddy?”
“Jared told me about this.”
“What?”
“The other night - when I went over there the night that ya’ll talked to Chad? He said he’d heard a rumor about this.”
“So what you’re saying is that I need to go talk to Murray again?” Christian wandered back into the living room with an apple.
“I don’t know who to blame.” Jensen opened the magazine to the full-color spread that answered his own question. “Jesus, Chris.”
“What?”
“Do you recognize this woman?” He turned the magazine for Christian to look at.
Christian dropped the apple when he saw her face. “Oh, that…we have to go pay someone a visit.”
“Chris, don’t do something you’re going to regret!” Jensen called to the form already closing the door.
Christian stopped for a moment, turning. “Oh, don’t you worry, Ackles, I won’t regret a single thing I do.”
Jensen cringed as he heard the truck fire up and dialed Steve. When the other man picked up, Jensen said one sentence, “You got a pissed Christian coming your way.”
Steve swung the door open when he heard the ignition cut out. “How’s tricks?”
“Carlson, grab your ass-kickin’ boots, we got a man we gotta set straight.”
“Hello?”
Christian stopped pacing to look at his friend. “Man, we gotta go visit Murray. I told him how it was gonna be and he didn’t listen.”
“Wait, what? We can’t just march in there all guns-a-blazin’, Chris. We have to make sure it’s him.”
“Aw, hell.” His shoulders fell. All the wind was taken out of his rant. “Why do you have to be right?”
“Look,” Steve half-pushed, half-guided Christian to the table. “All we need to do is let Jensen deal with it. He’s the only one that can now.”
“Fine,” Christian pouted, “What’s for lunch?”
“And I’m telling you that I don’t even know who that girl is!” Jensen screamed into the phone as he contemplated tearing his hair out.
“Jensen,” the voice on the other end of the phone soothed. “We’ve got to do something right now. Not only did this person claim that you got her pregnant, but she also shared who you were with the world. This is not good. Though, let’s be honest, this will take care of the gay rumors.”
“I don’t give a shit about the gay rumors!” Jensen picked up the offending magazine and threw it across the room. “And they aren’t rumors!”
“Careful what you say, Jensen…”
“I’m tired of it, Cecilia, I really am. When I started this, it was supposed to be fun - and now, three years later, I am still doing it and it’s become a chore. Maybe…maybe I should just say it’s all true and cut my losses. You’re my publicist, what do you say?”
“Don’t talk like that. We’ll call a press conference and you can address all these calls I’ve been getting at once.”
“What do you mean ‘all the calls’? There’s been more than one?” Jensen was really starting to panic now. There was no way Jared hadn’t seen this.
“Er, well…”
“Don’t sugar coat it, Cece.”
There was a long silence where Jensen was sure she had hung up the phone to avoid the question. “Okay, you have an appointment at nine tomorrow morning. We’re going to settle this then.”
“Jesus…” Jensen fell onto the sofa. “I honestly don’t know if I can do this.”
“Bullshit. You’re tougher than this.”
“If you’re sure.”
“Put on your big boy boots and man up!” Cecelia ordered. “Oh, and, Jensen?”
“Yes, Cece?”
“Don’t tell the other guys when and where it’s going to be if you don’t want a fiasco. We’re going to try to gloss over the whole ‘Sassfras’ thing, ‘kay?”
“I can’t lie to them.”
“I’m not asking you to lie, I’m asking you to omit.”
“Clearly you don’t listen to our songs.”
“Clearly. See you at eight thirty.”
Jensen listened to the click of the phone before slamming his own. He had one whole day to lay low and hope this would all be a bad dream.
“I can’t believe I have to do this,” Jensen sighed, wiping his hand over his face.
“I told you not to tell them,” Cecilia gritted through her teeth, all but pinching her client.
“They already knew. And I couldn’t just go out there without telling them,” Jensen spat back.
“Just go out there and get it over with,” Steve urged his band mate and friend.
“We got your back,” Christian assured him.
“That’s what I’m worried about,” Jensen drew in a breath before opening the door to the conference room. Cecilia followed close behind, her hand hovering near his back for support.
The flashes went off almost immediately and Jensen plastered on his fanface smile and waved before taking his seat next to Cecilia.
“All right,” his publicist calmed the room. “You all know why we’re here. So, I guess I should just open the room to questions.”
Hands shot up everywhere. Jensen sighed and closed his eyes before pointing randomly.
A young man in a Bruce Springsteen tee spoke. “I’m going to cut right to the chase - are the allegations true?”
Jensen laughed. “You’re going to have to be more specific.”
“The one that the woman made against you?”
“Would that be the baby one?” Jensen narrowed his eyes in thought.
“There’s another one?”
“Jensen…” Cecilia frowned at him before blurting, “That’s not true. Not even a little bit.”
“I heard this morning that you had two other children from a previous relationship. Is that also not true?” Another young man asked, from the other side of the room.
Jensen had just drawn in a breath when the back door to the conference room burst open and a loud booming voice filled the room.
“Ya’ll stop the rumors! None of them have gotten or are getting any Ackles sperm. Case closed!”
Jensen’s shoulder’s fell and he mumbled to the floor. “Thank you, Chris.”
“I said I had your back, man.” Christian reminded him as he forced someone to move so he could sit in the front row.
“Sorry,” Steve mouthed with a shrug as he followed the other man in.
Jensen shrugged. “I guess that answers that.”
“What about the gay rumors?” A voice near the back of the room yelled and Steve had to hold Christian in his seat by pressing his shoulders.
“What about them?” Cecilia shot back in defense.
“Are they true? Is that why the pregnancy rumors can’t be true?”
Jensen looked at the faces around the room, all watching and waiting. He looked to his left for an answer, but found Cecilia oddly quiet.
He had to make a decision now, and it wasn’t going to be easy. The air was heavy and thick and Jensen was sure that any answer he would give would have negative repercussions. After a look at his friends and then a quick on at his publicist, he knew just what to do.
Jensen removed his phone from his pocket and ignored the weird looks he was getting, motioning the crowd to stay silent so he could make this call. When the person he was calling picked up, he quickly switched to speaker.
“Hey, Jensen,” the person on the other end greeted. “You seen that magazine with you on it yet?”
“Yeah,” Jensen nodded into the phone, still giving no clues to the room as to what was going on. “And I’ll explain all that later. Right now, I have a question to ask you.”
“Oh…kay…”
“Jared?”
“Yes, Jensen?”
“You wanna go out with me tonight?”
“Yes?”
“And then stay over?”
“Yes?”
“Why do those sound like questions?”
“Because I might be a little confused.”
“And why is that, Jared?”
“Because I thought we already talked about this.”
“And?”
“And, I thought we covered last night that that is what boyfriends do.”
“What what do?”
“Boyfriends.”
“Say louder?”
“Boyfriends?”
“Come again?”
“BOYfriends. Are you okay, Jensen?”
“Better now. See you later, Jared.” Jensen smiled as he looked out into the audience and closed his phone. Once he had done that, he stood and calmly walked out the door he had come in, leaving the whole room to explode with questions that Cecilia could damn well answer for him. After all, that’s what he paid her to do.
“Dude, that was epic,” Steve congratulated Jensen when he and Christian had made their way back to the green room.
“I just…wow. I just did that, didn’t I?” Jensen was still visibly shaking.
“Hell yes, you did,” Cecilia’s voice came into the room before she did. “And I should kick your ass. Or kiss you. I can’t decide which right now.”
“Kick his ass, kiss me,” Christian offered, stepping toward her.
Cecilia got well within his personal space. “Or I could kick your ass too. What the hell was that thing where you busted in?”
“I had to have my boy’s back - you got a problem with that?” Christian puffed up his chest.
“All right, back down.” Steve stood between them. “I think we’ve had enough fun for today.”
Christian looked deflated as he took a few steps back and looked at his watch. “Shit. I was supposed to be at a fitting.”
“For?” Steve frowned.
“The next part of the tour - I guess they want to change one of the shirts Francis wears to one with a maple leaf and they need it to fit right. I don’t know.”
“Sounds fun,” Jensen offered.
“Sounds boring.” Christian shrugged. “Carlson, think I can get a ride?”
“Sure thing.” He turned to Jensen. “Good job out there. I wouldn’t have had the balls.”
“Sure you would have.”
“Hey, touching moment and all, but if I don’t get to the studio, Rob’s gonna have my balls.”
“Fine, ya big baby, let’s go.” Steve pushed him out the door.
Christian popped his head back in. “Ackles?”
“Yeah, Chris?”
“I still got your back.”
“Still worried about it.”
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