Log: Bobby and Lorna, Tuesday night.

[x-coldhands.livejournal.com]

Bobby goes to Lorna's suite for some advice and sympathy. He gets plenty of both, but still doesn't know what to do about the mess his relationship is in.


Bobby hit send on his reply to Lorna and quickly shed his pajama bottoms, grabbing a pair of jeans and pulling them on. A few years ago he wouldn't have bothered, but things were different now, and they were all a bit old for ice cream and pajama parties. He stopped by the freezer in the suite and grabbed his rocky road out of the door, then poked through several pints of ice cream, finally finding the strawberry he knew was there.

He paused outside Lorna's door to juggle the containers of ice cream, freeing up a hand to knock softly by tucking the rocky road against his body.


"Come in, it's not locked," Lorna called from the kitchen. She hadn't bothered to change and was still in her flannel pajama pants, one of Alex's t-shirts and a thick terrycloth robe. She'd pulled out two spoons--it was unlikely that they were going to need bowls after all--and was making herself some hot cider, a poor substitute for coffee in her opinion but she really did need to get to sleep tonight.


Bobby slipped inside and closed the door, shuffling the ice cream again, back to one in each hand. He stopped in the doorway of the kitchen and leaned against the wall. "Hey. Thanks."


"Hi. Don't mention it." She took the strawberry ice cream from him, handed him a spoon and nodded toward the living room. "Couch?"


Bobby clutched the spoon in his hand as he nodded and headed for the couch, curling up in one corner and popping the lid from the rocky road. He prodded the ice cream with his spoon a few times before scooping out a large bite.


Lorna curled up next to him and took a small scoop of strawberry for herself. "So what's up? You're eating a store-brand rocky road so I know that you're not happy."


Bobby shrugged, grinning sheepishly. It was nice to have friends that knew him so well, really. The grin faded as he poked at the ice cream again. "I could use some relationship advice, I guess."


"Don't buy her power tools for her birthday," Lorna said promptly and shifted so she was leaning against him, her feet tucked up on the couch next to her. "What kind of advice? Something you did? Something she did?"


"Yes, and yes." Bobby groaned, resting his head against hers. "She accused me of not talking to her anymore, and she's right." One problem at a time. "It's gotten to the point where we don't talk. It's all about...um. Not talking," he finished, suddenly uncomfortable about discussing sex with Lorna. Or sex with Terry, at least. Was he still bugged by her age?


Lorna smiled sympathetically. "It's not easy. Alex and I have had some pretty ugly fights about that ourselves--the whole not talking thing, I mean. Not quite for the same reason but lack of communication was a problem for a while." She set her ice cream aside. "So what are you thinking? How are you going to fix it?"



"I don't know. Maybe we should go back to just being friends for a while." Although the thought terrified him, because of the other problem they were having--what if Terry ran straight to Tommy? Of course, it might be better to know now, if she was going to do that.


"You're going to just give up? That's…pretty pathetic, Bobby." Lorna patted his knee to show that she wasn't being mean. "Do you want to break up with her? Because there are probably better ways of solving the not talking problem than giving up on the whole dating thing. I mean, sometimes that works but I personally find it really hard to stay friends with an ex, even one I was close to before."


Bobby frowned. "It's not giving up...it's working on the other stuff without the whole dating part distracting us." He sighed and shoved a bite of ice cream into his mouth, talking around it. "Of course I don't want to break up with her. I love her. It's just...complicated." And a total mess.


"Don't talk with your mouth full." Lorna said automatically and poked him in the side. "If you do that, how do you make sure that when you start dating again, you don't have the same problem?"


Bobby swallowed and stuck his tongue out at her. "Yes, mom." He dropped the spoon into the carton and shrugged. "If we start dating again...I guess we'd just have to pay more attention. Make more of an effort."


"If? That doesn't sound like 'I love her, I don't want to break up'." She sat up and looked at him seriously, "What else is wrong? You're not just thinking about breaking up with her because you don't talk. What's going on?"


Bobby spooned up a bite of melting ice cream and refroze it absently, licking at the underside of the spoon and not stalling, of course not. He spooned the ice cream into his mouth, letting it melt for a minute then swallowing. Finally he sighed and asked quietly, not looking up, "Have you seen how she runs to Tommy Jones' side, both literally and figuratively, every time something happens with that little..." Several choice words flitted through his head, but he went with a more tame one, "jerk?"


"I haven't really noticed. I don't actually keep close tabs on Terry. I thought she didn't like him. Does she know how much it bothers you? And why?" Lorna stretched over to the coffee table to pick up her cider and wrapped her hands around it. "I met Tommy, you know. I think I scared him a little bit."


Bobby made a face. "I wish she didn't like him. Of course she knows it bothers me, and why...but she has this huge blind spot where he's concerned." He smiled just a bit and said, "At least he's not completely stupid. He should be scared of you. You're terrifying." The grin slowly widened, Bobby's eyes sparkling as he teased her.


"More than he knows, even." Lorna sighed, staring down at her hands for a moment before shaking it off. "I don't deny that he seems to be a horrible little troll. He also seems to be an ignorant one or a very good liar. He didn't know about some of the things the FoH have done. Why do you think that Terry feels like she has to protect him?"


That question earned another face and another shrug. "She says she knows he's better than this. I don't get it. He doesn't even care about what he's done to--people. Ignorance isn't an excuse. Why does she think he deserves her loyalty?" He took another bite of ice cream, obediently swallowing before speaking again. "Jay's not speaking to her now...and I can't say I blame him." He looked at Lorna and touched her hair lightly, adding in a soft voice, "You know I don't really think you're terrifying, right?"


"You need to read the mission reports again. I can be very scary." Lorna shrugged and smiled at him without much humor. "I have to tell you, when it came up on the staff list, I was in favor of giving him as much of a chance as we can. No prejudging; no holding his past against him. People do change and this school has seen that many times. That said, I don't blame you for being upset with her. I don't know what to tell you to do about it though."


Bobby snorted and ignored her comment--he'd read the reports, and that wasn't his Lorna he'd been reading about, he knew. "I'm not holding his past against him," he said, a half-truth. "I'm holding his present against him. If he'd shown any sign of remorse for what he's done, what he's been...it'd be different." Not much different, but come on. The kid was FoH, how much forgiveness was Bobby supposed to extend right off the bat?? "God, this is all such a mess. What would you do?"


"If my significant other or my best friend suddenly decided that they were going to be best buds with the person in the house that I hated the most?" Lorna smiled wryly; Bobby hadn't been here when she'd moved out of the suite with Alison. "Historically, I screamed a great deal, had a horrific tantrum and didn't speak to Alison for at least a week. Alex…I can't stay mad at Alex and I was doing better then anyway so I just begged him not to. He did anyway and eventually, he learned that I'd been right all along."


Bobby blinked--he hadn't expected an actual response, just a hypothetical one. "...Terry's the screamer," he commented after a minute, then blushed. "Er...y'know what I mean. I'm not one for screaming, and...I don't know if I have the right to beg her not to talk to him. I mean, I can't control her friends, right? That's not my place." He just wished it was.


"No, you can't pick her friends. And giving her an ultimatum is…really a bad idea even if you're certain she'll choose you. But you can ask her, for your sake, to not associate with him." Lorna sighed. "I asked Alex not to befriend Manuel. He did anyway and…it hurt me. I can't say it didn't. But my choices were to leave or stay with him anyway and just deal. I chose Alex. I wasn't going to let Manuel ruin my life."


Bobby leaned forward and set the ice cream down, no longer hungry. "And what if I don't give her an ultimatum...and she chooses him, anyway?" he asked softly. "It'd be easier to break up now, before we get any deeper..." Before he let himself fall for her any more than he already has.


"By choose him, what do you mean? If she decides to continue being his friend, then that's her decision. Your choice after that is the same as mine, you can stay or go." Lorna sipped her cider, thinking. "You say that you don't want to break up with her but it's the only solution you're even considering. Are you sure you want to stay with her, Bobby?"

Bobby's stomach promptly tied itself in a knot. "...I don't know," he whispered. "I love her, but..." But that was part of the problem--just how much he loved her scared the crap out of him. "And I don't mean choose him just as a friend. I mean...she was dating him. He--uh, she found out he was FoH, they broke up, and she started dating me." He raised his hand, smilng sadly. "Rebound Guy. Now he's a mutant, and he's right here, and she clearly cares about him...what if she decides to give him another chance?" He ran his fingers through his hair and leaned back, resting his head against the back of the couch. "Where does that leave me?"

"I think it leaves you borrowing trouble." Lorna sat back on the couch, cradling her cider. "What if she leaves you? Well, what if Sean decides to move them back to Ireland? If this relationship isn't important enough to you that you can't even survive a what if then you're not going to get very far. There's always going to be something to be scared of. You can't make this about Tommy. Tommy isn't putting himself in the middle of your relationship, you are."

Lorna's words made sense, but it didn't exactly help Bobby. "So what do I do, then?" he pleaded, burying his face in his hands.

She rubbed his back. "Well, talk to her as a start. Tell her how you feel, what you're scared will happen. Give her a chance to make things right before you decide they're all wrong. Bobby...does she love you?"

"...I don't know. She says she does," Bobby mumbled through his fingers.

"You don't believe her?"

Bobby was quiet for a minute. "...I used to." Before Manuel. Before Tommy. Before everything became such a mess.

She set aside her cider and pulled him back to her so that she wasn't staring at the back of his head. "And now you don't trust her anymore? What changed?"

Bobby leaned against her and mumbled in a monotone, "She slept with Manuel. I slept with Manuel. Tommy regained consciousness. Too much changed."

Lorna pulled back, raising her eyebrows at him and giving him a Look. "...ew. Why did you do that? Did you all go temporarily insane or something because...ew." Okay, so Lorna was never going to get over disliking Manuel. She just hoped that Bobby had a good explanation for that lapse in judgement.

Bobby groaned and rubbed his eyes, tucking his knees up against his chest. "It's a long story, Lorna. Don't make me go into it."

"Hmm," was her final comment on the matter. Manuel wasn't the point after all. "Well, I can see how her sleeping with him would be upsetting. And I know why Tommy upsets you. So what are you going to do? You don't trust her anymore and that's a very hard way to be in a relationship."

"Tell me about it," Bobby muttered, gesturing at the Baskin Robbins carton. "I don't know what I'm going to do. I just don't know." He picked up the ice cream and froze it, then struggled to pull the spoon free. "I guess I'll think about it over the holidays."

Lorna just hugged him. "I'm sorry, Bobby. I know how much this has to suck for you. I just wouldn't rush into any decisions. There are lots of solutions to all this."

But how many of them ended with he and Terry still together? Bobby returned the hug and then pulled back, rising to his feet with a sad smile. "Thanks for listening, anyway. And for the advice."

"Anytime. Seriously." Lorna smiled sympathetically, knowing that there wasn't much advice she could give that would make this easier on him. "Good luck, Bobby. I know that you'll figure this out somehow."

"Thanks. Enjoy the strawberry," Bobby said, and headed for the door. "G'night, Lorna."