Terry's day sucks. A lot.

[x-siryn.livejournal.com]

Tuesday morning wasn't good to Terry, as she makes a discovery that really ruins her whole day.



She had developed a routine in the last six months. Wake up, shower, brush teeth and blow dry hair. Take vitamins, take birth control pill, mark the calendar and go get dressed. She was humming when she marked off the calendar then did a double take at the date. Spinning around, she grabbed up the blister pack of pills and stared in horror at the five innocent pills still remaining then back at the calendar. Where there should have been only three pills left there were still five. She'd missed two days. Somehow, she'd missed two days.

Oh shit.


In fact, her day sucks so much, that the suckage has the power to overcome old wounds.



Terry slammed out of the car, plastic drugstore bagged gripped in one hand, totally forgetting the dress that she'd just picked up from the getting hemmed. She'd hung up the keys to the car she'd borrowed by the time she remembered and had to run back. She fumbled the lock twice and was swearing creatively by the time she wrenched the door open and grabbed the dress out. She was still swearing under her breath as she reached the landing on the second floor, face slightly pale from nerves, most of her attention focused on the little box waiting innocently in the bag.

Instead of on her path as maybe she ought to have. Because there was a much larger and equally concerned redhead walking down hallway who also wasn't paying attention to where he was going. Cue comical collision.

"Hey!" Jay cried, rubbing his elbow. And then he looked at whom he'd hit. "Oh, hey." These three syllables are the most he's said to Terry in months.

Terry bounced off him rather harder than he had off her and found herself, back to a wall, stunned. She blinked up at him, remembering their fight and how he used to be her best friend and how this was usually the kind of thing that she'd have been able to tell him and...

Burst into tears.

Jay hadn't showered or groomed at all since Kyle came hobbling back to their suite sans a toe, but he didn't think he looked that scary or smelled that bad. What was she on? "Um, Ah'm just gonna . . ." He gestured vaguely in another direction, but found that he couldn't just leave. He was still angry with Terry and hurt, but it was more of a festering sore than anything else. He couldn't be so callous. "What's wrong?"

Terry shook her head, trying and failing to say that there was nothing wrong. Instead she gathered up her fallen dress and bag and wordlessly opened it so he could see the simple pink and white box claiming to be the only 100% error proof test. She sniffled, "I think I have a problem."

"And this is why Ah'm gay," he managed to say once he picked his jaw up from the floor. Jay knew Terry was foolish (as she'd attested to quite clearly last week), but this? This was something else all together.

She glared at him. "It wasn't on purpose! And maybe it's not..." she broke off and looked around then grabbed his arm and dragged him into her mercifully empty suite. Thank God. "Maybe I'm not....anything. But I should test, right?"

"Well, yeah, of course you should." He looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "You . . . want me around for this?"

Terry started to say no then realised that she very much did. She winced and nodded. "If you would? I'm just...I'm a little scared and I don't think that I can take waiting all by myself and...you were my best friend."

Jay bit his lip and nodded. "Yeah. Go ahead, Ah'll be here." He took a seat at her couch and tried to give her an encouraging smile. It wasn't easy.

Terry took a deep breath and, taking the plastic drugstore bag, vanished into the bathroom. She returned a couple minutes later, holding the cardboard box and chewing on her lower lip. "It says to wait 10 minutes." She fidgeted for a moment then sat down on the couch and buried her head in her hands. "What am I going to do, Jay?"

"You can't keep it," he told her, as if he had any say in it. "Ah mean, you're younger'n me. You can't be a mom yet."

Terry looked up at him aghast, "Keep it? I don't even want to have it! What am I going to tell Bobby? You saw the way he reacted to Rachel! He hates babies. He'll never speak to me again." She flopped back against the couch cushions, shaking her head. "This is such a mess."

"Terry" - Jay realized that what the first time he'd addressed her by her name - "Iffn he stopped speakin' to ya every time you thought he would, you'd have stopped datin' last summer. And it's as much his fault as yours, anyway."

"This is different. You didn't see the way he was with Rachel. And we've had so many problems already." Terry made a face, "And you're wrong. This isn't his fault. I'm the idiot who forgot her damn pills."

"And Ah suppose his condom just slipped off?" Or at least he assumed that they were using double protection. He'd learned that much in sex ed, even if it didn't apply to him. "It takes two people ta make a baby. Don't beat yourself up about it."

Terry turned a shade of red so deep it was nearly purple and she mumbled something indistinct while looking very intently at her fingernails.

Jay threw up his hands in the air and muttered something that seemed to include the word "breeders." He looked at her, frowning, and moved a little bit closer to her. "If it comes out positive, what'll you do?"

Terry shook her head. "I don't know. I can't tell him. He'll have a fit." She dragged her legs to her chest and rested her chin on her knees. "And I can't even imagine telling Sean. As though I've not been enough trouble for him. And school and everything...I can't join the team if I'm pregnant!" All the worries that she'd been trying not to think about came crashing in on her. She gave a heartbroken wail and covered her face with her hands.

"You don't have to be pregnant," Jay said slowly. Which was probably the least helpful thing he could say, knowing her religious background.

Terry looked at him as though he'd grown another head...or worse, considering that a second head around here probably wouldn't have caused her to look quite so utterly confused, repulsed and disconcerted. "No...I couldn't do that. That's not....no. Just no." Her religion and her character wouldn't permit it. Before he'd said it the idea hadn't even crossed her mind.

Oh how he knew that look. And Sam wonders why Jay never goes to church anymore. "Then you do have to tell him. It's not like you can hide it for long. Even if ya don't start showin', the 'paths are gonna pick it up."

Terry's look shifted to being just a little desperate. "I know. But...what if I move? I can go back home until the baby is born and then give it up for adoption or something. Only a couple people have to know."

"That's just a little suspicious," Jay replied wryly. "And how'd you take care of yourself? You don't got a job, and you know your father would be doing his whole supercop thing and checkin' in on you all the time. Listen, Ah ain't tryin' ta convince ya to get a . . . y'know, but you really don't got other choices if you want ta keep it a secret from everyone."

"I'd find a job. And I could live at the keep." She hugged herself, "I'd have to tell Sean. Couldn't get around it. But that's it. No one else." Terry gave Jay a wide-eyed, woebegone stare, "I can't get rid of it, Jay. It's not right."

Jay scooted a little bit closer. "And you're not goin' ta tell Bobby that there's a little him runnin' around? Ah don't think that's right."

"I'd tell him eventually." Terry's voice shook and she didn't sound at all sure of that statement. "But this is mine to deal with. Bobby doesn't deserve to have to worry about this." She glanced up at the clock, "Oh, god. It's been ages. I should go look." She remained where she was, paler than ever.

Jay reached to take and squeeze Terry's hand as a sign of support. "Good luck," he offered. For everyone's sake, he hoped for a negative response.

Terry squeezed his hand back then slowly got up. Her stomach was knotted and her legs felt weak. She took a shaky breath and trudged back to the bathroom, feeling like she was under a death sentence. She closed her eyes when she stepped up to the counter and murmured a prayer. She opened her eyes. "Oh holy mother of God... Jay!"

Jay jumped up and ran to her side. "What is it? Are you . . . Holy fuckin' shit." He looked down at the test, then up at Terry, and then back down at the test.

She dissolved slowly into tears, not stormy and panicked as she'd been before, just heartbroken and disbelieving. "It's not fair, it's just not fair."

All bad blood between them forgotten, Jay wrapped his arms around Terry and held onto her tightly. He didn't know what to say to her that would be at all helpful.

Terry clung to him and wept, the test in her hand cheerfully giving her the wrong news.

Comments

[x-legion.livejournal.com]

Terry clung to him and wept, the test in her hand cheerfully giving her the wrong news.

*choke*

Okay. This is why you take things like this to Jean.

[x-siryn.livejournal.com]

*giggles* Shhhh! Ask a medical professional? Surely you jest! OTC tests are never inaccurate.