Post by Andrew Jacobsen on Jan 5, 2013 22:29:22 GMT -6
Andrew rolls over in his bed, grumbling to himself as he hears a faint conversation being carried on in the hotel room. He reaches blindly for the remote, grabbing it and sitting up to turn off the television. However, he sees Emma Danielson on the phone, an expression of concern on her face as she speaks.
"...I just wanted to call and ask if Jason was recovering well...I'm so sorry, I mean...it's horrible when anyone passes away like that, and they were engaged, and...I lost my mom to a drunk driver, so seeing it happen to someone else...I'm glad he's awake...oh, y-you don't have t—"
Emma is cut off, and when the person on the other end speaks, she blushes faintly.
"...h-hi Jake...nothing, I just wanted to call and give my condolences...I didn't expect Kathy to pick up..that's very sweet of you...I won't keep you if you've got something to do...good luck...bye, Jake."
She hangs up, sighing and looking over into the disbelieving stare of Andrew Jacobsen. He shakes his head slowly, mouthing several words, and she annoyedly snaps back at him, reverting to the Emma of old.
"What are you staring at?"
His jaw works uselessly for a few more seconds before kicking back into gear.
"Jake? You call him Jake?"
She blinks again, shrugging.
"It's his name."
Andrew splutters in indignant rage, standing and getting out of bed. This act reveals that he was still sleeping in his jeans. In fact, he's fully clothed apart from his shoes as he walks forward.
"He's your boss! Aren't you supposed to call him Mr. Conway or something?! I mean, Jesus Christ."
Emma snaps at him again, storming up and jabbing her finger into his chest repeatedly as she speaks.
"Jesus Christ yourself, sparky! I'm sitting here showing some human decency, and you're busy getting pissed over what I call him! Y'know, you need to calm down. The boogeyman isn't around every ***damn corner. Have you tried talking to your sister lately? Oh, that's right, it turns into a shouting match! Maybe if you opened up a bit more, you wouldn't HAVE that problem!"
She pokes him in the chest one final time for emphasis, but as she draws her finger back, Andrew grabs it firmly. Emma yanks back, but he holds on before pushing, shoving her back roughly. Andrew's voice is a low, quiet growl, icy and harsh.
"Get out."
Emma opens her mouth to protest, but a death glare from Jacobsen stifles any protests. She stares back for a moment before silently shaking her head, turning and walking away. Emma walks to the door, opening it and stepping through. She slams the door behind her, and Andrew stares at it for a few seconds, silently glaring. Slowly, his face begins to soften, and the last thing we see before we fade out is his face locked in an expression of shock and grief.
"Do you know why I've become so gun-shy when my coworkers get involved with my family? Do you have any idea why, when someone tries to say that they're just trying to do something out of the goodness of their hearts, I get just a bit paranoid? Here, let me walk you through it."
"There's the bull with Steve Awesome. You seem to know all about that one. You know, where someone walks in and destroys a relationship that has stood for years? Unlike Vargas, however, where there was genuine desire, your buddy and mine...he walked in and he ruined my parents' relationship for FUN. He was BORED. And we had to suffer because of it. He suckered her in, playing the handsome, chivalrous man rescuing her from a loveless marriage out of the good of his own heart, and the moment he got bored again, he dropped her like a dead weight. Oh, and for extra points, he put my father in the hospital with fractured ribs. So that's what happened when my parents met NCW."
"Or how about my brother? Rick Jacobsen? You remember him? Big guy, beard, goofy-ass smile? He hit some hard times, and, out of the goodness of his heart, Will Washington hired him on to help the family. And he forced him to work as his manservant. I had to kick my brother, my flesh and blood, dead in the jaw, because Will HID behind him. Like an utter coward. And, another bonus, Will damn near kidnapped Danielle in that. She got hurt because someone wanted to get to me. Two more people close to me that suffered because of so-called good intentions."
"And that's why I'm worried about you. I'm worried because I have been burned time and time again, my family have been burned, by people just like you. So maybe I'm a little sadder than I could have been. Maybe my smile's faded, my words are bitter, my attitude cynical. I try to ignore it, because I know that I can't let it consume me. And, really...I'm fighting for more than just my family. I'm fighting for people like Solitaire."
"I want to be that hero. I want to be the responsible one, the guy they can look up to. You put it yourself, you're a man who gets paid to crack the skulls of men like...well, not like me. You think you have a category for me, just like I think I have one for you. You assume I have more guts than brains, that you're smarter than me. That's something that always gets me. Men like you assume you're making the smart call, being bastards like you are. You think good is dumb, old-fashioned, utterly irrelevant in this profession except as fodder for the geniuses like you. And that, sir, is where you're dead wrong."
"You love to style yourself as the Evolutionary. The Apex of Evolution. You force people to evolve or die. But...you have to evolve too. You need to change with your environment, or you're going to be proven as the washed-up fossil all your skeptics claim you are. See...we both know that's not the case. We both know you evolve, and that you're still a highly dangerous threat. So...in the end, you can't be you without an opposing force. I am that opposition. Here I am. Adapt or die."
"If I were the idiot you think I am, I would have taken what you did at face value. I would have accepted your words right as you fed them to me, and I wouldn't remember all the suffering people have put them through in the past. What's the endgame, Ace? What do you want out of them? Are you planning some twisted scheme with Callie or Emma as a pawn? What is it? I know you've taken quite an interest in Emma physically as well as professionally...maybe you're not quite the bastion of faith and strength you act like you are?"
"You have no idea how much it hurts me to suggest that. I want to believe SOMETHING you say. I want to believe that you can be honest there. But I've seen the way you look at her. And I've heard the way she talks about you. You're a charmer, Ace. You're quite debonaire. But I don't want you to hurt her. If you were anyone else, I would be happy for her. If you weren't a married man with a long history of cynically exploiting anything you could for leverage, I would be ecstatic. But you're you. So I have to be wary."
"I'm still dreaming, Ace. I'm dreaming about that Triple Crown. I'm dreaming about a match that could steal away this entire pay-per-view. But you keep threatening that dream. You hide behind your daughter and say, with all the faux-sincerity of one of the Bond villains you love, 'Please, big bad Mr. Jacobsen, don't make me destroy my daughter's dream.' I'll go out there, and I'll wrestle a clean match. If anyone destroys that, it'll be you. Don't shirk that responsibility, you bastard."
"I've dealt with the arrogant. I've dealt with liars, and the vengeful, and the smug, and the truly monstrous. But you are a beast all your own. I want to think that I'll be able to shake your hand after our match. I'll be ready to do that...but whether it can happen is on you. Make that choice, Jake. Be the man I know you can be. Transcend that self-imposed label of villain."
"Evolve."[/color]
"...I just wanted to call and ask if Jason was recovering well...I'm so sorry, I mean...it's horrible when anyone passes away like that, and they were engaged, and...I lost my mom to a drunk driver, so seeing it happen to someone else...I'm glad he's awake...oh, y-you don't have t—"
Emma is cut off, and when the person on the other end speaks, she blushes faintly.
"...h-hi Jake...nothing, I just wanted to call and give my condolences...I didn't expect Kathy to pick up..that's very sweet of you...I won't keep you if you've got something to do...good luck...bye, Jake."
She hangs up, sighing and looking over into the disbelieving stare of Andrew Jacobsen. He shakes his head slowly, mouthing several words, and she annoyedly snaps back at him, reverting to the Emma of old.
"What are you staring at?"
His jaw works uselessly for a few more seconds before kicking back into gear.
"Jake? You call him Jake?"
She blinks again, shrugging.
"It's his name."
Andrew splutters in indignant rage, standing and getting out of bed. This act reveals that he was still sleeping in his jeans. In fact, he's fully clothed apart from his shoes as he walks forward.
"He's your boss! Aren't you supposed to call him Mr. Conway or something?! I mean, Jesus Christ."
Emma snaps at him again, storming up and jabbing her finger into his chest repeatedly as she speaks.
"Jesus Christ yourself, sparky! I'm sitting here showing some human decency, and you're busy getting pissed over what I call him! Y'know, you need to calm down. The boogeyman isn't around every ***damn corner. Have you tried talking to your sister lately? Oh, that's right, it turns into a shouting match! Maybe if you opened up a bit more, you wouldn't HAVE that problem!"
She pokes him in the chest one final time for emphasis, but as she draws her finger back, Andrew grabs it firmly. Emma yanks back, but he holds on before pushing, shoving her back roughly. Andrew's voice is a low, quiet growl, icy and harsh.
"Get out."
Emma opens her mouth to protest, but a death glare from Jacobsen stifles any protests. She stares back for a moment before silently shaking her head, turning and walking away. Emma walks to the door, opening it and stepping through. She slams the door behind her, and Andrew stares at it for a few seconds, silently glaring. Slowly, his face begins to soften, and the last thing we see before we fade out is his face locked in an expression of shock and grief.
"Do you know why I've become so gun-shy when my coworkers get involved with my family? Do you have any idea why, when someone tries to say that they're just trying to do something out of the goodness of their hearts, I get just a bit paranoid? Here, let me walk you through it."
"There's the bull with Steve Awesome. You seem to know all about that one. You know, where someone walks in and destroys a relationship that has stood for years? Unlike Vargas, however, where there was genuine desire, your buddy and mine...he walked in and he ruined my parents' relationship for FUN. He was BORED. And we had to suffer because of it. He suckered her in, playing the handsome, chivalrous man rescuing her from a loveless marriage out of the good of his own heart, and the moment he got bored again, he dropped her like a dead weight. Oh, and for extra points, he put my father in the hospital with fractured ribs. So that's what happened when my parents met NCW."
"Or how about my brother? Rick Jacobsen? You remember him? Big guy, beard, goofy-ass smile? He hit some hard times, and, out of the goodness of his heart, Will Washington hired him on to help the family. And he forced him to work as his manservant. I had to kick my brother, my flesh and blood, dead in the jaw, because Will HID behind him. Like an utter coward. And, another bonus, Will damn near kidnapped Danielle in that. She got hurt because someone wanted to get to me. Two more people close to me that suffered because of so-called good intentions."
"And that's why I'm worried about you. I'm worried because I have been burned time and time again, my family have been burned, by people just like you. So maybe I'm a little sadder than I could have been. Maybe my smile's faded, my words are bitter, my attitude cynical. I try to ignore it, because I know that I can't let it consume me. And, really...I'm fighting for more than just my family. I'm fighting for people like Solitaire."
"I want to be that hero. I want to be the responsible one, the guy they can look up to. You put it yourself, you're a man who gets paid to crack the skulls of men like...well, not like me. You think you have a category for me, just like I think I have one for you. You assume I have more guts than brains, that you're smarter than me. That's something that always gets me. Men like you assume you're making the smart call, being bastards like you are. You think good is dumb, old-fashioned, utterly irrelevant in this profession except as fodder for the geniuses like you. And that, sir, is where you're dead wrong."
"You love to style yourself as the Evolutionary. The Apex of Evolution. You force people to evolve or die. But...you have to evolve too. You need to change with your environment, or you're going to be proven as the washed-up fossil all your skeptics claim you are. See...we both know that's not the case. We both know you evolve, and that you're still a highly dangerous threat. So...in the end, you can't be you without an opposing force. I am that opposition. Here I am. Adapt or die."
"If I were the idiot you think I am, I would have taken what you did at face value. I would have accepted your words right as you fed them to me, and I wouldn't remember all the suffering people have put them through in the past. What's the endgame, Ace? What do you want out of them? Are you planning some twisted scheme with Callie or Emma as a pawn? What is it? I know you've taken quite an interest in Emma physically as well as professionally...maybe you're not quite the bastion of faith and strength you act like you are?"
"You have no idea how much it hurts me to suggest that. I want to believe SOMETHING you say. I want to believe that you can be honest there. But I've seen the way you look at her. And I've heard the way she talks about you. You're a charmer, Ace. You're quite debonaire. But I don't want you to hurt her. If you were anyone else, I would be happy for her. If you weren't a married man with a long history of cynically exploiting anything you could for leverage, I would be ecstatic. But you're you. So I have to be wary."
"I'm still dreaming, Ace. I'm dreaming about that Triple Crown. I'm dreaming about a match that could steal away this entire pay-per-view. But you keep threatening that dream. You hide behind your daughter and say, with all the faux-sincerity of one of the Bond villains you love, 'Please, big bad Mr. Jacobsen, don't make me destroy my daughter's dream.' I'll go out there, and I'll wrestle a clean match. If anyone destroys that, it'll be you. Don't shirk that responsibility, you bastard."
"I've dealt with the arrogant. I've dealt with liars, and the vengeful, and the smug, and the truly monstrous. But you are a beast all your own. I want to think that I'll be able to shake your hand after our match. I'll be ready to do that...but whether it can happen is on you. Make that choice, Jake. Be the man I know you can be. Transcend that self-imposed label of villain."
"Evolve."[/color]