Bad Company

Author’s Note: This is going to be a short story compared to the other two I believe. It’s just to clear things up with the gang, but I believe there will be another one after this one.

Disclaimer: I don’t own Lupin The Third at all.

Chapter Title: Crystal Ball

I used to like to walk the straight and narrow line
I used to think that everything was fine
Sometimes I'd like to sit and gaze for days through sleepless dreams
All alone and trapped in time
All alone and trapped in time

I wonder what tomorrow has in mind for me
Or am I even in it's mind at all
Perhaps I'll get a chance to look ahead and see
Soon as I find myself a crystal ball
Soon as I find myself a crystal ball

Crystal Ball, Styx

On With The Story:

Alex sighed as she heard the crying from the other room. She slowly tied her robe and got out of bed. She was not feeling well enough to take care of a crying baby, especially one that needed its breathing treatment and would throw a tantrum about the machine.

“Lay back down Alex, I’m already heading that way,” said Jigen’s voice from the doorway and she sent up a silent prayer of thanks before laying back down.

She knew that half the time Jigen was willing to take care of Courtney to take his mind off the fact that he couldn’t smoke; not that he didn’t love his daughter he did, but he missed smoking a great deal. Alex sighed knowing she wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep listening to the machine that cleared Courtney’s lungs. She was glad that Courtney would be off the machine when she turned one. She hated having to force Courtney to use the thing.

She climbed out of bed and walked to the nursery. It was a beautiful room that her and Jigen had put together during Courtney’s first week home. It was a light pink and powder blue room. By time she walked into the room Jigen was sitting in the rocking chair feeding Courtney her bottle. She stood by Courtney’s crib until she was done drinking. Jigen put the bottle down and tickled the bottom of Courtney’s foot causing her to giggle and kick her feet. Jigen looked up at Alex and smiled at her.

“I think your daughter is rather fond of you,” she said softly.

“I think so too,” he said and then looked at his watch and sighed. “I have to go. I have a flight in an hour. Are you going to be okay all alone? I know you aren’t feeling that great.”

“I’ll be fine, just go, I know you get antsy if you can fly somewhere,” she said with a smile. “I’m starting to wonder if it was the flying that kept you in the Lupin gang and not the money.”

Jigen smiled at her and stood, handing Courtney over to her.

“It was always the flying and the target practice,” he said with a chuckle causing Alex to roll her eyes.

“Get to work,” she said pushing him to the door.

“Okay, okay,” he said with a sigh and kissed her. “Goodbye Alex.”

“Bye, and remember next week we have to get to New York so we can spend thanksgiving with my dad and Amber,” she told him.

“I know, I know,” he said and walked down the steps.

“Your dad is helpless,” she said tickling Courtney’s stomach. “Doesn’t want to admit that you have him wrapped around your little finger. But we know that as soon as you look at him with those big blue eyes, he melts, don’t we?”

Courtney just smiled at her and Alex kissed her forehead.

“Come on, first order of business, diaper change, and then we’ll get you in the tub,” Alex said and walked with Courtney to the bathroom.

Lorraine groaned as she moved to sit down on the couch. Being seven months pregnant was not fun at all. She’d forgotten how frustrating it was to barely be able to walk. Caleb looked up from his drawing and smiled at her.

“Hi mom,” he said with a smile.

“Hi Caleb,” she said with a tired smile. “How’s the drawing going?”

“It’s okay,” he said. “Dad coming?”

“Yeah, your dad will be here soon,” she said with a sigh.

She’d nearly forgotten that Christian was supposed to pick Caleb up for his weekend visit. She was surprised that she had gone from hating the guy more than anything on earth to actually respecting the guy. She knew that it wouldn’t be so easy to forgive him if she hadn’t been in love with Zenigata but she would never admit that out loud.

She heard a knock on the door and groaned. She’d just gotten comfortable. She slowly stood up and walked to the door. Christian grinned when she opened the door switching to holding his nine month old daughter Kayla in one arm. She only knew which daughter it was because she was the only one with curly hair.

“Is Caleb ready?” Christian asked her.

“Yeah, he’s ready,” she said and moved out of the way in time for Caleb to run to his dad.

“Yup,” Caleb said. “I’m ready, let’s go.”

“Okay,” Christian said and then smiled at Lorraine again. “Good luck with the baby Lorraine.”

“Thanks,” she said and said goodbye to Caleb wishing she could lean down to kiss him.

She watched them drive off and then closed the door with a sigh and walked back to the couch. She leaned back and closed her eyes hoping for her headache to be gone.

Darrah smiled as John played on the floor with Gabby. She couldn’t believe how close he was to his daughter. She still hadn’t told him that she had feelings for him. As far as he knew she was just a friend and someone who cared about Gabby. She had come to love the little girl. She thought of Gabby as her own child. She knew she had didn’t have a right to feel the way she did. She wasn’t even dating Gabby’s dad, but she loved her all the same.

“Someone’s a daddy’s girl,” she said looking at the one year old laughing on the floor.

“That she is,” John said with a smile. “She adores you too you know.”

“She does?” Darrah asked surprised.

John looked at Darrah with a smile and nodded.

“You’ve been hanging around with her and me for the past four months, of course she adores you,” he said.

“True,” Darrah said with a nod.

John stood up and walked to the couch as Gabby played with one of toys on the rug. He sat down on the couch beside Darrah and stretched out a bit.

“Isn’t it weird Darrah?”

“Hmm?” Darrah asked as she laughed at the look on Gabby’s face when the little phone started making noise.

“This actually feels like a family,” John said softly and Darrah looked at him in surprise. “When Gabby was first born I wanted her and her mom to move in with me so we could be a family, but that obviously didn’t work out. Not with her mom’s drug problem. It just seems having you here with me and Gabby, eating dinners with us, being here when we just hang around the house, even when we go to the store with Gabby, even though you’re not really her mom, it feels as if you are. If feels as if it’s actually a family.”

Darrah was stunned. She thought maybe she had been hanging around too much, but John never seemed to mind. She’d stop by on her way home from the station just to check on Gabby, and he’d invite her in for dinner, or just invite her to go somewhere with them. She never thought it actually mattered to him as much as it did.

“Is that a good or bad thing?” she asked softly.

“It’s good, deficiently good,” he told her with a smile. “In fact I kind of want to bring up the issue we’ve been skating around since we’ve met.”

“What issue?”

“I know you’ve been hurt Darrah, it’s obvious, but I was wondering, what if we started dating,” he told her quietly. “You’re already a big part of Gabby’s life, and mine, and it would just make both of us much happier if you were more.”

Darrah smiled and leaned forward to kiss him happily. It was out of instinct and she didn’t feel like fighting the urge anymore.

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” she told him softly and he just smiled at her.

Fujiko dressed the little boy and picked him up to hold him gently against her. She never really thought of herself as the maternal type, but it seemed that when Devin was born, she became a new person. She adored her son. She was trying to be the best mom that she could. When she found out that he was definitely Goemon’s kid, she’d been so happy she wasn’t able to stop smiling for days.

Goemon loved their son as much as she did. All he did was talk about how he was going to teach his son the ways of the Samurai and when Devin learned to sit up he went around town telling everyone he possibly could.

She leaned down and kissed Devin’s forehead before walking downstairs with him. She got out a bottle of baby cereal and gave it to him. Goemon walked in and sat down at the table beside them.

“He’s quiet this morning,” he said looking at Devin.

“Yeah, I know,” Fujiko said. “Nothings wrong though, so I’m not going to complain. If he’s quiet it means fewer headaches.”

“Good point,” Goemon said with a smile. “So, how are classes going?”

“Pretty good, the teacher says I have a talent with clothes,” she said with a smile.

Fujiko still found it hard to believe that she was actually in college. Her mom was actually paying her way into fashion design classes and Fujiko really couldn’t be happier about being in school. It was a new feeling for her, and she was glad that Goemon was happy about it also. She felt bad for leaving him home with the baby all the time though, and he constantly had to assure her that he didn’t mind being home with Devin.

Fujiko looked at the clock and leaned forward to kiss Goemon.

“I’ll see you soon,” she said with a smile and he nodded.

“Bye sweetie,” she said kissing Devin’s cheek and she walked out of the house.

Goemon turned to Devin with a grin.

“Just you and me again kid. What are we going to do with ourselves,” he asked the baby who just grinned at him happily.

“Yeah you’re right,” he said with a sigh. “We’ll just wait until she gets home. Don’t you just hate it when she has to leave? But at least she’s happy. Who can complain when your mom is happy?”

Devin giggled and Goemon smiled at him again.

“At least I can talk to you and not worry about you putting your two cents in,” he said picking him up and carrying him into the living room to his play pin.

Amber sighed as she heard to voices crying for the nursery. She walked up the stairs and walked into the nursery for Aiden and Angela. Alvin walked in behind her and they both tried to tend to the twins. They changed their diapers and fed them each a bottle and Zander walked in yawning.

“Are they okay?” he asked.

“They’re fine,” Amber said softly.

It was barely five in the morning and this was the second time the twins had woken Zander up that night. Amber felt sorry for him. The twins kept him from getting any sleep half the time.

“I’m going to shower for school, no point in going back to bed now,” he said with a groan and walked toward the bath room.

“Poor kid,” Alvin said softly as at the twins starting falling back to sleep.

“Can’t wait till these two start sleeping through the night,” Amber said smiling.

“I know,” Alvin told her.

“I’m definitely looking forward to seeing Courtney at the end of the month,” Amber said softly.

“So am I,” Alvin said smiling. “That girl is going to grow up to look just like her mom.”

“She’s going to be a beauty that’s for sure,” Amber agreed.

They put the twins back into their cribs and walked back to their bedroom. Amber was glad that Zander had gotten his own license and car, she knew she wouldn’t’ have been able to drive him to school.

Layla sat on the bench watching as Lupin raced around the track one last time. She couldn’t believe she’d agreed to let him try his hand at racing. He’d recently gotten out of jail after his mom paid his away his debts. That and Zenigata had tampered with the evidence of his crimes making it seem like it was less that it was. It had surprised her that Zenigata had been willing do to that for Lupin, but in the end it seemed that the two, while they annoyed each other to no end, seemed to actually respect each other.

She put her hand on her stomach and smiled when the baby kicked. She couldn’t believe she was having a little girl. Lupin had been so happy when he found out, although she knew he preferred a girl. She heard the car turn off and walked to the railing of the track as Lupin ran over to her.

“I think I’ll be able to win the race tomorrow,” he told her with a smile.

“That’s great,” she said as he climbed the rails to stand in front of her.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply and he pulled her as close as he could get to her.

“I love you,” he said softly.

“I love you,” she replied. “Now come on and let’s go. Race tracks irritate me.”

Lupin sighed and nodded.

“Sure let’s go,” he said smiling.

They walked out of the race track towards their car.

“It’s still hard to believe your a free man,” she said with a smile.

“Isn’t it,” Lupin said with a nod. “I never expected pops would help clear my name.”

“Well thank god he did,” Layla said.

“Yup, Lorraine must’ve changed him for the better,” Lupin said with a chuckle. “I still remember him thinking he was nuts and chasing me through San Francisco.”

“Poor guy,” Layla said with a laugh. “You really must’ve tortured him.”

“Yeah, poor guy, it was fun though,” Lupin said with a smile.

“I bet it was,” Layla said rolling her eyes with a smile.

Adam muttered under his breath at the people in the car in front of him. He really should have just stayed and talked things over with Cory instead of getting caught in the noon traffic. He sighed and rested his head on the steering wheel after pulling up to a red light. He had no idea why he was so upset. He sensed it was coming ever since the press started hounding them. He had hoped the press would die down after a month or two but it didn’t and he knew Cory wouldn’t have been able to deal with that exposure, but damn it, it still hurt.

He loved Cory, it was the first time he’d ever loved someone in his life. He’d hoped that he and Cory would last longer than they did. When he started dating Cory he thought maybe he’d come across someone that was capable of actually being there for him. Someone he could be with for a long time without getting restless.

The light turned green and Adam drove to the apartment where he knew Jack lived. He needed someone to talk to and over the past month and two and a half months Jack had become that person. He turned his car off and walked inside. He walked up the two flights of stares to Jack’s apartment and knocked. The door opened and Jack stood there looking half asleep wearing just a pair of sweat pants.

“Oh, hi Adam,” he said. “What time is it?”

“Noon,” Adam told him.

“Damn, I must‘ve been up later than I thought,” he said. “Come on in, sorry I was up developing photos last night. Have a seat and I’ll get dressed.”

Adam nodded and sat down on the couch while Jack disappeared into the bedroom to get dressed.

A minute or two later Jack walked out of the bedroom and sat down beside him.

“So, what’s wrong, I figure something has got to be up because you usually call before you come over,” Jack told him.

“Cory and I broke up,” Adam said quietly. “He told me he was done with dealing with the press today.”

“Oh Adam, I’m so sorry,” Jack said softly.

Adam nodded and looked down at the floor.

“I don’t know why I’m so upset,” he said quietly. “I knew it was coming, I’ve told you I knew it was coming. When he told me I wasn’t surprised, but I don’t know, it just hit me.”

“I know,” Jack said putting his hand on Adam’s shoulder.

Adam sat there quietly for a minute and then turned to Jack with a sigh.

“Listen, I thought I was coming here to talk about whatever I was feeling, but I don’t know what I’m feeling,” he said shaking his head. “I’m just so confused about it all. Before I got with Cory I could hook up with whoever I wanted, and it never hurt so much to lose them, and now, even though I know the way it ended will keep us as friends, I’m just so lost, and I know it’s because I loved him, but it’s just so hard to understand.”

“I know Adam, but it’s not over yet, there’s guys out there just waiting for you,” Jack said pulling Adam in for a hug.

Jack closed his eyes as Adam laid his head against his chest. He felt so bad for him. He knew it was no secret that he cared about Adam. It was one of the reasons why Cory had trouble accepting that he and Adam had become friends. He was worried that he would make a play at Adam. The truth was he thought Cory and Adam were good together. He had hoped that Cory would get used to the press that followed them around. He didn’t blame Cory for not liking the cameras, he was sure they were hard to get used to, but Jack figured Cory would put that aside to be with Adam.

He ran his hands up and down Adam’s back trying to be as comforting as possible. The truth was, he had no idea how to comfort someone after a breakup. He’d been dumped before, and he’d had friends who’d been dumped, but he had never seen someone so upset after a break up. It hurt him to see Adam so upset and he wished he could do something to make him feel better, but he had no idea what would help.

Adam sighed and leaned back. He tried to give Jack a smile and Jack’s heart broke at the tears in Adam’s eyes.

“Are you going to be okay?” he asked rubbing Adam’s cheek with his thumb.

Adam gave him a small smile and nodded.

“I think so,” he said softly. “Thanks for being here for me Jack.”

“Where else would I be,” Jack said with a chuckle. “So, you want to stay for dinner?”

“That sounds good,” Adam said with a nod.

Zenigata walked into the house he was sharing with Lorraine and smiled as he saw her lying on the couch asleep. He debated with carrying her into the bedroom and lying her on the bed but decided to leave her where she lay afraid he would wake her. He walked into the bedroom and took the cover off the bed and spread it out over her.

He leaned down and kissed her forehead and then sat there for a second as he laid his hand on her stomach. He brushed the hair away from her eyes when he felt the baby kicked. He smiled and then stood up from where he was kneeling.

He knew the baby was wearing her out and he felt bad that she had to put up with it, but he was just excited about being able to actually be in this child’s life, instead of missing five years of it like he did with Aria.

Zenigata walked into the kitchen in order to start dinner for her.

(End chapter)

I know it’s not that great, but it gets better, I promise you. I have big plans for the next two stories in this series.