Just A Dream...

A Gabor Legacy
 

Chapter Nine: An Unexpected Shock

"What's eatin' you?"
Jetta shot her business partner a confused glance, setting aside her pen. "You 'aven't been focused on this all mornin' - what's up? I ain't doin' all this by myself, you know!"
"Oh, can it." Phyllis snapped. "It's not like it'll kill us if we leave it another day. You're too fussed about work these days, Jetta!"
"Well, me family kinda live on it." Jetta said dryly. "C'mon, Pizzazz...I know when somethin's up. You might as well tell me."
Phyllis rolled her eyes.
"My life ain't yours to mess with you know." She returned.
"No, but there ain't much in it I don't know about." Jetta responded.
"True." Phyllis groaned. "Okay, already. It's Nancy."
"Nancy?" Jetta looked startled.
"She found out about Emily."
"Oh!"
"She hasn't mentioned it to you?"
"No...she hasn't." Jetta shook her head. "Not that I've seen her a lot these last couple of days. We've both had a lot of work on, and you know full well my family ain't sentimental."
"She promised to keep quiet...think she will?"
"She will." Jetta nodded. "Though if you want me to talk to 'er 'bout doin' so I will."
"No it's okay. I believe her." Phyllis sighed.
"What else, then?"
"I dunno. I feel real weird about it, like I let the kid down somehow." Phyllis frowned, snapping her pen in two and tossing the halves on the floor. "Dammit, this is bugging me! I shouldn't feel like that. She's a kid and she ain't even my kid!"
"She's nineteen." Jetta reminded her. "Not such a kid now."
"Well, whatever. I still shouldn't care what she thinks of me."
Jetta eyed her friend shrewdly.
"You gotta come out of denial." She said finally.
"Denial?" Phyllis looked startled. "Whaddya mean, denial?"
"Over Emily." Jetta replied. "It's plain as day to me, Pizzazz. Nancy is your way of dealin' with your maternal instinct, only without the responsibility of 'er bein' yours."
"Emily is nothing to do with it or with me!"
"Ain't she?" Jetta frowned, then..."I don't break confidences, Pizzazz, an' I promised meself I'd never mention it to you, but maybe I gotta now. The night you gave her up...I saw you cry."
"I did no such thing!"
"I saw it, Pizzazz." Jetta repeated patiently. "I never told anyone, least of all you, cos I 'oped you'd get over it an' get back to normal. I 'ave no qualms about what you did back then, it was the right choice an' the only choice short of never 'avin' 'er in the first place. I didn't want you to remember 'er or bother about 'er, and I thought it 'ad worked, till Riot opened 'is big mouth at that banquet a year ago. Since then it's been 'Emily this' an' 'Emily that'. If you ain't 'appy with things sort 'em out...but stop tryin' to pretend they don't matter."
Phyllis stared at her friend for a moment. Then she shook her head slowly.
"Don't even go there." She said, her tone carrying a warning. "You don't understand...don't try. Let's get this finished, huh? Better than deep and meaningful chats about nothing."
Jetta took the hint, returning her attention to the matter at hand, but she knew her friend well enough to know that she had hit a nerve. She frowned. Only question was, what would come of it?

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"Miss Raymond, can you come back in now?"
Sirena rose from her seat, a decidedly unamused expression on her face as she followed the doctor back into the office. She had resented both the personal nature of the questions and the indignity of the tests, but she had not faltered in her resolve to prove Rory's story wrong. She sat down in the empty chair, waiting impatiently for the doctor to retake her own seat and divulge the test result.
This, the singer soon discovered, she was about to do, but what she had to say was not precisely what Sirena had been expecting to hear.
Dr Kusnik paused a moment before she spoke, assessing her patient's countenance carefully. She bit her lip, then,
"Well, I have your result."
"Don't take all day, damn you." Sirena snapped. "I do have a life, you know."
"Yes...I know." The doctor nodded. "Miss Raymond...I think you should prepare yourself. The test came out positive."
"What?" The words took the wind out of Sirena's sails and she could only stare at the doctor. "Positive? But...it can't be! There must be a mistake!"
"There is always margin for error." The doctor acknowledged. "But to be honest, Miss Raymond, I don't think it very likely in your case. The answers you gave me to the questions, along with the test result itself indicate to me that you are in fact pregnant." She frowned. "Are you all right? You're very pale...do you feel faint?"
"I..." Sirena's confusion was such that she did not snap back at the doctor. "I can't believe...it can't be! How can I be? How...oh God, and when..."
"That I can't tell you on the basis of this morning's meeting." the doctor responded. "Though from what you've told me yourself I suspect that you're at least eight weeks, perhaps even as many as twelve. But I would need to examine you further to ascertain that kind of information and calculate a due date with any precision." She paused, eying her patient. "That is, if you intend on continuing with the pregnancy."
"Continuing?" Sirena stared at her blankly. Dr Kusnik sighed.
"You've had a shock, I think." She said gently. "Do you have someone you can call to pick you up?"
"No...there is nobody. I...I drove here."
"I don't think you're in any state to drive, Miss Raymond." The doctor's tone was gentle, her natural compassion winning through despite the girl's earlier prickliness. "I'll have one of the receptionists call you a taxi to take you home."
Seeing her charge was beyond an answer, she picked up the phone to call through to the nurses at the reception desk. Before long a taxi cab had arrived and, barely knowing what she was doing, Sirena obediently got in, giving her address in a vague monotone. She remembered very little of the journey back to her apartment, and it was only when she arrived back in the safety of what had become her world that the truth of it began to hit her.
And as it sank in, something else began to nag at her.
For the first time in her life she felt lonely, and knew it.
Unable to conceal her emotions any more, she threw herself down on her bed, allowing the helpless tears to take over. She didn't know what to do or where to go. Fear was the only thing on her mind - fear of discovery, fear of public humiliation, fear of the situation itself.
"Oh God, I've become my mother!" She whispered, hugging her pillow tightly to her chest. "I'm turning into her...and there's noone I can turn to!"
As the sobs quieted, slithers of rational thought began to return to her and clumsily she reached for her bag, pulling out her mobile phone and dialling the number for Rebel Records. Swallowing the lump in her throat she waited for Rory to pick up, knowing only too well that he'd be waiting to hear from her.
And hear from her he damn well would.
"Rebel Records, Rory Llewelyn speaking." Somehow that smooth, self-assured voice was doubly grating this afternoon.
"I hope you're happy." she spoke in broken, reproachful tones, and it took the executive at the other end of the line a moment to register who was calling him.
"Emily?"
"Who else would it be?"
"Where are you?"
"Home. Where the hell else?"
"I thought you'd come back here."
"Come back?" Sirena let out a hollow laugh. "Rory, you really think you're the person I wanna see right now?"
"What's going on?" Rory's tone was suspicious.
"You're gonna regret ever leaking that story to the press, you know." Sirena told him.
"Emily, stop playing games with me!"
"Me playing games?" The injustice of this angered her. "Me? You realise what you've done to me and my reputation now?"
"Oh come on, it's not that big a deal. It's just tabloid gossip." Rory told her.
"No, Rory. It's not just tabloid gossip."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean it's true."
"What?"
"What I said." Sirena retorted. "It's true. I'm pregnant. There, you happy now? You got your scandal."
"You can't be! Hang it, Emily, this is important!"
"What is? Your precious company's accounts?" Sirena snapped. "This is my whole life messed up here, and you're worried about money?"
"Money matters." Rory told her coldly. "Listen to me. You can't be pregnant."
"Um, I'm sorry, Rory, but I am. The doctor said so herself."
"I'm aware of that. What I mean is that with the current situation as it is at Rebel Records, you can't afford to be messing around and having kids. You're twenty one and you're too young to screw your career up...Hell, I won't let you! You go and make sure things are seen to, because there is no room for a baby in Sirena's schedule. You understand me?"
Sirena did not reply immediately, for the cold, unfeeling nature of his words had cut right through her vulnerable state. She needed reassurance and friendship, not cold, selfish disinterest, and it had the effect of bringing back her tears.
"You can't tell  me what to do!" She exclaimed down the phone. "You don't own me!"
"Oh yes I do." Rory's voice was dangerously low. "You know it and I know it. You are nothing without my backing, so be a good girl and sort things out."
"And what if I don't?"
"Let me make this very clear to you." Rory replied quietly. "Either you come into the studio first thing Monday morning with everything taken care of, ready to start cutting your album, or you don't turn up at all. But if you don't turn up, your contract with Rebel Records is over. I can't afford to manage your careless mistakes."
With that he hung up and in her despair Emily flung the phone at the wall with some force, watching it smash with little pleasure.
"What am I going to do!" she demanded out loud. "What can I do? Oh Hell...I can't lose my contract, I just can't! It's everything that means I'm not a nobody any more..."
She frowned.
"But I'm not going to let him tell me what to do with my body." She added, a spark of her old defiance flaring up in her heart. "How dare he? It's up to me what I do, not him. Whatever he thinks, he doesn't own me!"
And then, from somewhere in the murky depths of her despair came the glimmer of an idea, one which she began to grasp hold of with all her might. For the first time she did not want to be alone, and yet there was only one person that she felt she could go to, only one person who might understand.
Harvey.
 
 

PART SIX: A GABOR LEGACY
Prologue: Twenty One Years Ago
Chapter One: Sirena And Blade
Chapter Two: Nancy's Heart
Chapter Three: Coup D'Etat
Chapter Four: The Reaction
Chapter Five: Nancy Finds Out
Chapter Six: Dilemma
Chapter Seven: Facing Phyllis
Chapter Eight: Scandal!
Chapter Nine: An Unexpected Shock
Chapter Ten: A Revelation
Chapter Eleven: Harvey Takes A Hand
Chapter Twelve: Sirena vs Pizzazz
Chapter Thirteen: Settling Rory
Chapter Fourteen: At Misfit Music
Epilogue: A New Beginning
 
 

JEWELFIC MAIN PAGE:
Copper, Nancy, Sylvie, Anna, Blade, Sirena, Topaz, Aaron, Sophie, Justin, Elliot, Rosita, Luis and any other characters in this fiction which do not appear in the animated Jem series are copyrighted to me (E.A Woolley) as of January 2002 <unless otherwise specified> and are not to be reproduced without permission ANYWHERE. Jetta, Pizzazz, Stormer, Roxy, Raya and all other original Jem characters are the copyright of Hasbro Inc, Sunbow, Christy Marx and the other writers of the Jem series.