ax_main | Pam and Billy | End of School Year Party

Billy catches the tail end of the fight between Fatale and Tommy, and sets off to find her.

Billy hadn't heard the whole conversation. He'd missed almost all of it in fact. What he'd seen was Tommy and Pam fighting. And, OK. He got that "fighting" here, at least between real people, wasn't going to end with someone dead. Or bleeding. Probably. It was almost all words.

But what he knew and the what-ifs his instincts were screaming at him were very different things. So he'd headed toward the two of them, making sure to keep his hands empty. (Tommy was fast; Billy would be lucky to get one shot in if it came to a real fight, and he didn't want to give away his intentions.)

Pam vanished before he got there. Tommy said something about making a choice, then he was gone too.

Billy stopped in his tracks and went for his phone. Sent Pam a text.

I saw the fight. Where did you go?

Pam heard her phone chime that she had a message, but ignored it as she made her way around past the table with the food. Damn Tommy anyway. Who would he have chosen, that was the question. She should've asked that. She should've punched him. She should...

She should have never come to the fucking party to begin with. Sinking down next to a tree, she unbent the light so she could see her phone. Billy. Sighing, she sent back, About a dozen yards behind the table with the food, by a really fucking big tree. You want a portal?

I know the tree. I'll come find you. Because he would almost certainly tell Goody what happened later, but if Pam didn't want to be found, no one else needed to see him portal out.

A few minutes later, he was leaning against the tree, speaking in the direction he'd heard a slightly choked breath from.

"Are you hurt?"

Pam wiped her hand over her eyes and shook her head. "Nothing's bleeding." She took a deep breath, and shakily let the rest of the light fade. "He doesn't get it." If Billy'd seen the fight, he'd know what she meant.

Billy sat beside her. "I didn't hear the fight," he said. "Just the end, where Tommy asked who you'd save."

"Because there's a choice there?" Pam made a face, then shifted in closer and leaned her head against his shoulder, trusting he'd let her know if that wasn't ok. "He knew the answer. How would I not choose Alex?"

Billy hesitated. He never invited touch from anyone other than Goodnight. The last time other hands on him had meant anything but pain, it was so far back, he hardly remembered it. But Pam knew how that was; she had the same scars. And even if she wasn't bleeding, she was still hurting. He settled an arm around her shoulders and leaned in.

"You wouldn't." But that wasn't quite right. "You couldn't. Like how I'd choose Goody over anyone else, no matter who."

"Yeah." Pam sighed. It was obvious to Billy, at least - that helped, some. Like she wasn't alone, at least. "Like I said, he doesn't get it. Or he gets it, and just says the shit to twist the knife and point out just how fucked up we are. I'm not sure which."

"He can't get it," Billy said. "He didn't have Alex or Goody. Maybe that's good, maybe not? But he's all himself, by himself. Like the other kids here." Billy frowned and gave Pam a little hug. "If he understood, he wouldn't ask, especially not to hurt you." Unless he was a really shitty person, and Tommy hadn't seemed that way when he'd talked with Billy.

"He knew what I'd answer," Pam disagreed. "If nothing else, he was making a point. He wants someone who'll put him first, and I can't." She made a face and ran her hand back through her hair. "Does it scare you ever? Knowing you and Goody are that tangled up?"

"Sometimes, maybe," Billy admitted slowly. "If Goody died, I'd lose too much of myself. Too much to still be Billy. But it's worth the risk if it means we stay together. I'm not going to let anything happen to him."

"I thought I was dead. Back at the facility." Pam let her eyes close. "No one could see me, not for months. The guards joked about how I'd actually died and was haunting the place, and I wasn't sure they were wrong. So I just...stopped, because I didn't care enough to keep going." She fixed her eyes on a spot on the ground. "Alex got me living again. And by the time I could turn off the invisible, I'd almost managed to forget that I was, when I was with him." She looked over at Billy and shrugged. "I...yeah. I'm not sure I'd be me anymore, if he wasn't there being him."

Billy nodded. "It's not something to change." Not something he wanted to change. "If people don't like that..." He shrugged in turn. "Just a waste of time, right?"

"Pretty much." She grimaced and rested her head back against his shoulder, grateful that he was letting her. "We tried working him in. Part because we wanted to; part so he wouldn't be alone. But that wasn't what he wanted, I guess." Or at the end of the day, it just didn't work that way. One of the two. Or maybe both.

"'Working him in?'" Billy knew he was missing some deeper meaning to those words, but wasn't sure he had it. Better to let Pam explain, so he knew for certain.

"Making it the three of us, not just two," Pam explained. "It was Alex's idea. But whatever, yeah. Waste of time. He's not gonna get it, and I don't think he wants to. Seeing as there's really nothing I can change about it? It doesn't really matter."

"No." Billy rested his temple to hers for a moment. "He still didn't have to make it sound like not choosing him was something you failed at, though."

"He kinda made me feel like I did, too," Pam admitted. She sighed and closed her eyes again. "I think I'm just gonna go inside, sober up a little, and see if I can take out vamps by throwing stakes at them. At least I'm good at that."

"You're badass," Billy agreed. "But you're more than just your knives and fighting. You've been a friend to me and Goody." He gave her a little squeeze. "Don't make yourself less than you are, OK? Not for me or Tommy or anyone."

"And that's what's called a Hallmark moment," Pam rolled her eyes, but looked at Billy and smiled to let him know she was joking. "Thanks for coming to find me. I'm sorry if I fucked up your party."

"I wasn't doing anything special, don't worry." Billy rose to his feet and offered Pam a hand up. "I might go see if Goody wants another dance. If he can stay on his feet, anyway."

"If you need help getting him back to the school, let me know? I can open a portal right into your guys' room." Pam accepted Billy's outstretched hand and got to her feet, the light around her flickering slightly. She smiled though, a little. "I saw you guys out there earlier. Nice moves."

Billy's smile flicked to something quieter, almost shy, and he glanced away. "It's easy with Goody anyway. We're in the same dance class." And then there was the waltzing. Billy was sure that they could do the whole dance with their eyes shut now, and never have to worry about stepping on each others' toes. It was just good to move with him again, even if it wasn't watching out for each other in a sim.

"You guys learned that in dance? And here I figured it was all stuck up girls in toe shoes," Pam snarked, but she squeezed his hand before releasing it. "I might have to check it out if we're still here in fall. Assuming I'm not still in the same classes I was in this year."

"Bet they'd let you swap electives." Billy flashed her a smile. "Come dance sometime. We can trade new moves, maybe."

"I can't dance," she admitted. "I just kinda try and copy whoever I'm with and hope I don't look too stupid."

"You couldn't swim before either. So come copy me and Goody."

Pam rolled her eyes. "No vamps for me, huh?" She smiled a little. "Tell you what. Let me go find where Alex is hiding, and we'll both come. He could use a lesson too."