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Chapter 7: Sons and Fathers
"YOU'RE GAY!" Leslie bellowed to the man, grabbing him by the collar. "EMBRACE IT! BECAUSE RIGHT NOW YOU'VE LOCKED YOURSELF IN THE CLOSET WITH THAT...THAT...MONSTER!" She held him closer, rasping to him, "Few things in this life can change, Fitz. You can't change who you are but you can change who you let hold that against you. So what if she ruins your image? Your a despicable capitalist of a sub-par candy company who's down one eye. What's a little gay gonna do to your PR? Huh? HUH?!" Again, Leslie shook him. "Live your truth, Fitz! Scream it to the heavens if you have to! Accept it! YOU. ARE. A HOMOSEXUAL! SAY IT! WITH PRIDE!"
***
Nicodemus poked his head from the closet. "I sense I'm in need?" He glanced at the shouting match going on aside from the adults. "My, what outrageous energy!"
-Leslie and Nicodemus
Carl's eyes widened, and he took a step back.
Holy Shit.
"You can say that again," said Phyllis mutely, watching in blank stupefaction at the drama unfolding before their eyes.
"I..." Fitz looked from Leslie to Little Cottonseed, to Doctors Hendricks and Langley, to the Hudson crone and Evans, "...am..." to Quinn's daughter, oh Quinn, the thought was enough to reduce him to jelly, "...a..." his eyes fell at last on Tracy, little Kitten with claws, conspiring with one son and then the other to bring him low, reduce him, grind him to dust...
Fitz felt tears on his cheeks, and did not wipe them away, "a homosexual," the word was whispered, like some forbidden curse.
"I," he said again, getting slowly to his feet, looking around at them all like a man on stage...
And it is a stage, isn't it? The greatest stage you've ever taken.
"Am a homosexual."
He looked around at them all.
Tina Hudson was the first to speak, "Called it! Oughta've been a bookie..."
"I!" he cried again, hands balled up into fists at his sides, "Am a homosexual!"
"Yeah, I think we..."
"I had my rod and staff serviced at the Gulp N' Go Gas Station in 2004!" he bellowed, "In secret shame, I had to arrive there, with my head concealed..."
"I guess that's why they have the stalls..." began Tina.
"In shame and guilt I have guarded this secret for all my life, to safeguard it from vultures and cretins and the probing hands of the public... But my silence has done nothing but erode my life, shave away my dignity and whatever remains of my self-respect. I don't owe anybody my silence, and I have given enough shame to last two lifetimes! No more!"
He shed his jacket, suddenly flush with excitement, "I AM A HOMOSEXUAL! With a song in my heart and the wind at my back, I say it now, come what may and hell to pay! I AM GAY!"
And behold! A star is born.
-Fitz, Phyllis and Tina
Noah
"I wouldn't say I was exiled exactly...Just that I withheld some information I had on Stavo, and it blew up in my face."
He told her and looked her over,
"You kno that doing this won't make you feel better right?"
Nicodemus stood there, entranced by the man's monologue. "Ain't that something!" He faced his fellow elders. "I think today, cause of Fitz, we're all a bit gay."
"By heaven," Dave commented. "I think we are."
Leslie stood in awe of what she had just witnessed, not expecting Fitz to be so colorful with the details and description but nevertheless...she was proud. Sure, Leslie was aggressive but when wasn't she? And she actually helped someone.
She was proud. And Leslie hoped, as futile as it was, that Micah would be too.
"That's right," Leslie patted her unlikely friend on the back, letting him know she stood with him in solidarity. "You're gay as Christmas. And that's OK." With that Fitz truly free, she asked, "So...the knife..." There was still a murder to solve.
-Nicodemus and Leslie
Carl felt his heart warm. Fitz...Micah would be proud.
Fitz turned to Leslie, his face still split into a grin, "...what knife?"
"Great. Another critic," Emma lamented, trudging on. "What cliche are you basing that off of? Please. It might be a long walk and I need something to laugh at."
***
Leslie slowly turned away, staring off into space, her smile faded. Don't explode, don't explode, don't explode...
"The murder weapon you were supposed to find for us in return," she replied flatly, before correcting herself. "Y'know, it's good. There's still time. You can tell us where to go, lead us in the right direction and we're set." She paused. "You do know where to go, right?"
-Emma and Leslie
"Oh, yes, well..." he gestured vaguely to the stockroom door, "It's on a sideboard in there. I'd about had it, but Kellerman was there and then there was all that hubbub about Wilcox leaving the toilet, and then there was a great deal of shouting and I said a few things and some things were said to me, and then a great many things happened, but I'm sure it's still there."
"Excuse me," Phyllis insinuated herself between the two of them, "Fitz, I...I wouldn't want to claim your moment from you..."
"Never fear. I shan't let that happen to me again," he smiled chummily. Phyllis smiled back, a fairly pained smile, but a smile all the same, "We were going to get together and look for the others."
"What others?"
"The many others who aren't here," she paused, "Your son is one of them."
"Oh," Fitz considered, looking around, "So he is. I suppose you need my help, then?"
"Well..." Phyllis shrugged, "If you'd like to come..."
"Oh, I've already faced the worst life can throw at me. What'll they do? Take my other eye?"
"Actually..." began Tina, but Phyllis gave her another look and she hushed up.
-Fitz, Phyllis and Tina
Noah
"I'm basing it on the fact that Piper being dead didn't make you feel better, if anything it made things worse because we couldn't get her to confess her accomplice before it was too late."
He would look at her softly with no judgement in his eyes, just worry, he couldn't helo but see her as anything but a girl who has lost too much.
"This is a new killer, with no clear target, killing them, hunting them down, it won't stop anither killer to pop up, if someone has a lust for blood, they'll go after it."
"OK," Leslie said, somewhat relieved. "That's something. Thanks." She looked to the rest of his colleague. "And good luck."
With that, she left the adults, leading Carl. "We're close. We just take the prints off the knife and match them to what we have and by the end of it, we'll have our killer. We're close, Carl."
***
Dave stepped forward. "I can go as well. I think there's no denying that I'm the strongest of the group now." Though considering he had a bad back, that was disappointing. Regardless, he was a sturdy man, to be sure.
"I'm good with whatever the vibe is," Nicodemus unnecessarily added. "But recall...I am a pacifist and therefore not inclined to violence."
-Leslie, Dave and Nicodemus
"Well, that shouldn't be a problem, then," said Phyllis lightly, "You can stay here, watch the kids. They should be a trifle less hard to manage than prison inmates."
"I'd be wary around that Tracy Lewis," Fitz whispered, "She'll make you do things you never dreamed."
"True. Piper's death didn't make me feel better...at first." Emma reflected on her long time away after the first massacre, the reflection she was forced to undergo. "It's comforting to know that something is over. There's a finality to it. A closure. I was just too stupid to understand it then. I didn't embrace what Audrey and I did. I felt...ashamed." She laughed. "I didn't know how good I had it. There's always another masked asshole around the corner, Noah. Boogeymen waiting in the dark. But that's just because we were too slow. We stopped one, another popped up. We got caught up in our stupid romances and arguments a-and gossip that we got distracted from the big picture. That's what this is about. Focusing on the right stuff, getting the job done. If I actually kill Ghostface--if I'm actually proactive, then we don't have to worry about another killer."
She scoffed. "What I'm beginning to wonder is what you think will stop another killer from rearing his ugly head? Catching him and sending him to jail? Cause we know how that turned out with Kieran now, don't we?"
***
"Never fear," Nicodemus assured Fitz. "I've dreamed many a thang. I'll be ready."
-Emma and Nicodemus
Fitz regarded the statement with a dubious air, turning away with a relieved expression on his face, "Well!"
"We have to figure out how to proceed," said Phyllis, "More than half of our number is unaccounted for, and there are only four of us."
"I hope you aren't about to suggest we all go on our own!" interjected Fitz.
"Aw, what happened, Seabreeze?" asked Tina, "Wilting already?"
"Quiet, you...you...moldy muff!"
"Say that again, Judy, I've been itching for a scrap..."
"Oh, stop it, both of you!" Phyllis snapped, "My God. Maybe...maybe we should fan out, two groups of two. It's still not enough, but...one party could cover the camp east of the cabins, and the other the west."
"What about the middle places?" prompted Fitz.
"You mean the cabins?"
"Of course."
"You and Dave were just there, I'm sure you couldn't have been that distracted..."
"Are you insinuating something?" snapped Fitz.
"What?"
"Nothing happened at those cabins!" Fitz raised his voice, "I'll spit on the first person who says otherwise!"
Tina opened her mouth. Fitz spat on her.
"Motherfucking queer!" she raised her hand to slap him...
-Fitz, Phyllis and Tina
Dave caught Tina's hand mid-swing. "Easy now! We must keep calm, for God's sake!" He threw her arm aside and looked at them both. "We're losing time here!" Finally, he addressed Phyllis. "Not a soul was in those cabins. That's why I was out there in the first place. I was alone with my thoughts." Dave furrowed his brow as he just recalled a pertinent detail. "But I did spy something odd in my wanderings." He gestured the door outside. "The bus is gone."
"The bus?" repeated Phyllis.
"I thought you idiots said it didn't work!"
"Don't look at me!" said Fitz, "I was otherwise occupied," he reached for his eyepatch, rubbing it ruefully.
"You don't think that's where they went, that..." Phyllis hesitated, "We've been left behind?"
"Sounds like something Dee would do," said Tina, "But the pain in my ass don't know how to drive. Fuck, I don't know if she can even reach the wheel."
Phyllis considered, "Well, there's only one road out of here. If the bus did leave, we won't have trouble making sure."
"What about east and west?" prompted Tina, "How're we doing that?"
"I shan't be going anyplace with you!" insisted Fitz.
"You sure as hell shan't not," Tina (seemed to) agree.
-Phyllis, Tina and Fitz
"Then you won't," Dave reasoned. "Fitz, you can go with Phyllis. Tina, you can go with me. Those pairings seem amiable, don't you agree?" He looked to Phyllis for approval.
"Um...yes," said Phyllis, looking at Fitz who was regarding her as if she were a canker sore, "Yes, very...uh...amiable."
"I ain't complaining!" Tina declared, sizing Dave up with what could only be described as an "appetite".
"Then we shouldn't waste anymore time," Phyllis decided, "Dave, you and Tina will go east, Fitz and I will take the west."
"It is best," interjected Fitz. Phyllis let out a long, strained sigh.
-Phyllis, Fitz and Tina
"Excellent!" Dave said jovially. "We have our assignments, then. Phyllis, Fitz--good luck." He moved to head out but he realized Tina, unlike him, still had connections in the building, people to say goodbye to. "I'll be waiting by the door. You may, er, get your things in order, as it were."
For who was he to interfere in a parent's relationship to her child? Dave headed to the door, where he waited patiently for Tina.
"You know, if you want to go with Fitz, you can," Phyllis sidled up to Dave, "I'm sure I could handle Tina."
She paused, "Not that I'm...I don't know that...I'm not trying to say..." she sighed, "Did...something happen, or am I very poor therapist?"
***
"Ma!" Eli approached Tina as she neared him, "What the hell is this?"
"Ah, you're always one step ahead of me, pookeyface."
"By necessity," he folded his arms, "You're looking for Deanna again?"
"Well, not just her."
"I dunno, I guess it's a surprise you give a shit."
"I give a shit about getting us out of this hellhole, that's what I give a shit about, kid..."
"I want to help."
"And you won't."
"Ma, I found Deanna before..."
"And now you're here and you'll stay right the hell put and let me handle this..."
"No offense, Ma, but you really haven't earned this Motherhood Level Up."
"I'm protecting my kid, ain't I?"
"Your kid wants to help you."
"My kid's helped enough."
"Ma!" Eli grabbed her by the arm, his words tight, "If you leave me here, I'll go nuts."
And Tina met him in the eye, "Better nuts than dead. You're gonna stay here and you're gonna listen to whatever Dr. Fuzzpuff says, you get that?"
"Ma..."
"Eli!"
"Be careful," he forced a tiny smile, "...please?"
And Tina sighed, "Yeah. Yeah, pookeyface, I will be."
-Tina and Phyllis
"Just a breeze, Phyllis," Dave assured her. "Spreading my dead thoughts 'round the world, breathing within me new life." He put his hands in his pockets and whistled "A Summer Wind," strolling out the door.
"Oh," Phyllis considered, feeling she might as well get it out of the way, "So you didn't have...relations with him?"
Noah
"Emma, despite wanting to I don't have all the answers, I just..." He would take a breath, he had thought a lot about this, about the morality of killing your enemy. No matter how much he thought it over, he always came back to the same conclusion.
"We'd be no different than them, we...We're supposed to be better, otherwise, why try to stop them at all?"
Dave looked over his shoulder, displaying a charming grin. "I've lost a good deal of my sanity, Dr. Hendricks. But I'm not that lost. Not yet." He continued whistling, heading around the corner, waiting for Tina.
***
Emma pivoted on her feet, getting right in Noah's face. "So killing Piper is the same as killing Riley, huh?"
-Dave and Emma
Noah
And that did it....Everything with Jamie dismissing him, Audrey hating him, Brooke and the hypocrisy, and finally the mention of poor, sweet, Riley. Before he even knew what he had done, his hand had made contact with with her cheek.
"Don't you ever fucking use her name to justify your sick plans."
Emma put a hand to her face, reddened by the blow. She rose her head, smiling. "Seems I struck a nerve." In one swift move, she rose her leg into Noah's stomach to knock the wind out of him and then pushed him against the nearest tree. "Now listen here, you little prick. You can get up on your high horse and talk down to me all you want but in the end, what have you really lost? A high school fling? Friends you just met? Funny thing. Those new friends of yours I knew for my entire life. And they died, one by one while I got myself dicked around by a few thugs playing dress-up who made a game all about me. And it wasn't just them. It was family. I had to shoot my only sibling dead!" She screamed in his face, voice cracking just slightly. "And now my mother has been slaughtered like so many others. She's dead and she's never coming back! Years and years of memories wasted!"
She stood there, panting, her voice sore. "So next time you wanna call me sick, remember: what have you lost?" Emma took a breath, stepping back from Noah, a load taken off her chest.
Noah
Noah felt a swift kick to his midsection, and suddenly all of the air was knocked out of him, and he was leaned against a tree as he was being berated, by the evolution of a girl who lost all her marbles and replaced them with bombs. Tears began to form in his eyes, as any loss he had felt was diminished in comparison of hers, as if grieving was a competition to be won. Noah grabbed her wrist and as the tears began to roll down his cheeks, he spoke in a very soft voice.
"Just because you feel as if you have no one left, doesn't mean you get to act like this. I am your friend Emma, I haven't written you off, which is more to say than some of the others who have come across you in this new state of mind you have." He told her, his voice sincere, and his eyes pleading.
"And I never will, I would die to keep you from dying before, and I'll do it again now. I am so scared that you are going to get yourself killed, Emma. Because you are my family."
"Family."
The word sent chills up her spine and stunned her right in her place. Emma was silent for some time as if she were stumped by the mere utterance of the word. For the first time since her mother's death, she was forced into an introspective as to what she became, how much she had changed, what she'd been reduced to. There was a vile mix of shame and pride in her resolve that Emma was unsure what to make of other than that she was barely human now. She felt unnatural and sick, as much as an abnormal creature as Brandon James.
And just like Brandon, despite what her so-called "friends" were saying, Emma still felt alone.
Finally, she spoke, her voice tinged with remorse. "That's a damn shame, Noah...I'm sorry to disappoint." Again, quiet, the sound of cicadas and the early morning rain being the only sounds that permeated the swamp now. "C'mon," Emma said, barely audible. "We probably lost the killer by now. Least we can do is try to find Kieran."
With that, Emma walked away, hoping the others would follow.
"Oh, well, I mean, it wouldn't be bad if you'd..." but Phyllis broke off, smiling, "Whatever it is, Dave, I'm...I'm glad you found it."
She took a few tentative steps back.
"Are you quite finished?" prompted Fitz, drawing up suddenly to her side.
"I suppose that depends what you call finished."
"Not a skillset in which you have much experience, hm?" he simpered. Phyllis considered ignoring the jibe, but couldn't help herself, "I can't imagine you do either."
"Oh, I've been productive," Fitz groused, "One such production's slipped off, remember?"
"We'll find him."
"If you insist."
They moved for the door.
***
"Ready and raring, Big Guy?" Tina sidled up alongside Dave, "Just saying my goodbyes to the kiddo. You'd think I was marching off to war."
-Phyllis, Fitz and Tina
"Good. Let's get it," replied Carl.