A Tendency to Start Fires
by lsquared

Note: This follows the scenes on March 28.

The echo of Ian’s footsteps might as well have been gunfire. Jerry recoiled at the sound, and although it faded the further Ian walked away, every beat was like a warning shot. It took a long time for Jerry to unclench his teeth and his fists, to recover from being ordered to perform a hit.

He took a step closer to the edge of the pier and looked down into the murky water. Jerry watched the moonlight ripple on the surface, a thing of beauty where there was really just a vast, deep well of nothing - just a body of water that was a port for drugs and coffee and guns. He knew if he could see down into the depths of the Port Charles River he would see discarded weapons and bodies. He would see blood.

Somewhere behind him, probably outside of Kelly’s, a child could be heard laughing. Jerry closed his eyes against the mild breeze and listened. He could remember a time in his life when it wasn’t unusual to smile and laugh, to be surrounded by the music of every day life such as that. It was something he truly wanted back, and that was why he wouldn’t follow Claudia Zacchara’s orders. It was why he had refused to do the dirty work for Ian Devlin. And it was why Jerry felt certain that he was being watched, that he was on the verge of something horrible.

She had meant to get up and leave a thousand times, but Alexis had been sitting at the bar since a mysterious phone call had Jerry apologizing and leaving the MetroCourt in a nervous rush. She had started drinking coffee and if anyone asked, she certainly wasn’t hoping Jerry Jacks would come back.

The bartender filled her mug to the top and a voice from behind said, “I’ll take one of those, only make mine whiskey.”

Alexis saw her ex-husband’s reflection in the mirror behind the bar. She turned to the side when Ric walked forward and leaned against the stool beside her. Judging from the forlorn look on his face and his unkempt appearance, she guessed he’d already had a drink or two. “What happened to your good mood?” Alexis asked carefully.

“It lied to me and left town,” Ric told her, leaning his forearms on the bar. When his whiskey was poured, he brought the glass to his lips, tilted his head back, and drained it in one loud gulp.

“What happened?”

Ric slid the glass to the bartender for a refill. He sat down and bent toward Alexis. “My father happened. He, uh, stooped to… I thought I knew every awful thing my father could do to me, but I was wrong.”

Alexis watched her ex tilt his glass side to side, the liquid nearly spilling over the edge. She took it from between his fingers and set it out of his reach. “Ric,” she asked, “what did Trevor do?”

“He hired Marianna. He paid a woman to flirt with me so I would hand over the deed to the piers.” Ric laughed bitterly, shaking his head. He propped his elbow on the bar and held his head up with the palm of his hand. “Go on and laugh.”

Alexis shook her head. “It’s not funny,” she told him. “I’m sorry. I know… I saw how happy you were.” She looked away. “I’m really sorry that happened to you.”

He sat upright. Alexis’ apology seemed to sober him. “Look at us,” Ric said, gesturing between the two of them and glancing at their reflection in the mirror. “How do two reasonably attractive, highly educated attorneys make such a mess of their lives? Romance shouldn’t have to be so difficult.”

Alexis laughed quietly. She looked up from the random spot on the floor she’d been staring at; she truly felt bad for Ric, but it was nevertheless difficult to feel too sorry for him.

“What about you?” he asked, his tone becoming playful, almost teasing. “I don’t see Jerry Jacks lurking around. That’s good news.”

“I don’t play with fire anymore,” Alexis stated, “and Jerry has a tendency to start fires. I’m trying to keep my distance.”

Ric nodded, but it was clear by the way he rolled his eyes that he didn’t quite believe her.

It took a great deal of restraint for Jerry not to barge into whatever conversation Alexis was having with Ric. He stood at the entrance to the restaurant, observing what appeared to be an amiable exchange. He thought he even saw traces of sympathy flit across Alexis’ face. Jerry waited until Ric left, watching as he pressed money onto the bar, gave his ex-wife’s shoulder a lingering squeeze, and whispered something that made Alexis look after him with a puzzled, pained expression.

“Good, you’re still here,” Jerry said, approaching Alexis.

She hopped down from the stool and began gathering her things together. “I was just leaving.”

“Please, let me buy you another drink. I need to apologize for my hasty retreat earlier.”

She shook her head. “No, you don’t.”

“Alexis,” Jerry said, picking her briefcase up from the bar, “I need to speak with you. Client to lawyer.”

Alexis attempted to yank the briefcase from Jerry. “I already fell for that trick once today.”

“It’s not a trick. Would you please come to my suite?”

She pulled harder and used her other hand to pry his fingers away from the leather handle. “You need new material, Jerry.”

“I’m serious, Alexis. That phone call? I need legal advice.”

The entire elevator ride to his suite was a warning from Alexis that if she got all the way to his room only to discover that Jerry had no intention of seeking legal advice, “I am firing myself as your lawyer.”

He opened the door to his suite and followed Alexis inside. “You say that, but I don’t believe it. You’d have to find some other excuse to spend time with me,” Jerry said.

Alexis set her things on the desk. She folded her arms and tapped her foot impatiently. “Alright, I’m here. What kind of trouble did you get into in the,” she paused to look at her watch, “seventy-five minutes you were gone?”

Jerry removed his coat and suit jacket, draping both over the back of a chair. He walked across the room and stood at the window. He stared at the surrounding buildings, the countless squares of light – other people living and working. His eyes shifted their focus to Alexis’ reflection behind him.

“When I was a child,” Jerry told her, still facing the window and the sparkle of the skyline, “I was the one who dared all the other boys to climb the tallest tree or jump from one roof to the next. I was the boy mothers warned their sons not to listen to. I knew that. I knew I had some kind of power over them. That if I said something was fun and brave, even if it was dangerous, they were going to want to do it.”

“Jerry…” Alexis moved closer to him, trying to read the expression on his face reflected in the glass. She had never pegged Jerry for getting nostalgic over his boyhood and she didn’t know what brought it on. But there was something so misplaced and vulnerable in the tone of his voice that she couldn’t stop him.

He turned toward her. “I’m not sure when that changed.” Jerry reached up, scratched at the back of his neck, and shrugged.

Alexis’ eyes followed Jerry’s slow, aimless wander around the room. She felt it would be rude to ask what he was trying to get at, or what his daring childhood had to do with her legal advice.

Jerry stopped and stood on the other side of the couch from Alexis. He pressed his hands over the back of the sofa. “If I have knowledge that something potentially dangerous is going to happen and don’t go to the authorities, if that something does happen… Alexis, if someone…”

“Spit it out, Jerry. What do you know is going to happen?”

He pursed his lips and his eyes narrowed. He thought about the sound of a child laughing, the far away sound he’d heard on the docks. Jerry thought about his brother and the children he was raising, how he longed to be a real uncle to them. And looking at Alexis, he thought of her children, of the unthinkable perils they’d already had to face in their young lives, and how despite all of it, they were still so innocent and joyful. “I’m sorry,” Jerry sighed.

“What? For what?”

He sighed and tilted his head down, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“There is no potentially dangerous thing, is there? This was another one of your tricks to get me alone, wasn’t it?”

He shook his head. Sensing Alexis’ retreat, he blocked the door before she could make any attempt to leave. “I did intend to seek your legal counsel, I swear, but…”

For perhaps the first time Alexis could remember, she saw Jerry for the troubled soul she knew he was. It was easy to write him off as a maniac, a psycho, a disaster waiting to happen. But she knew where Jerry came from, she knew he was born into love and raised with dignity, and that something led him to a life of crime. She didn’t want to fight him in the face of his humanity.

Jerry saw a calm come over Alexis; a sort of defeat settled over her. She seemed to resign herself to whatever he was going to say. “I want to finish our conversation from earlier,” he told her. “Things were getting so good when we were interrupted. You had just, finally, admitted your attraction to me.”

Alexis drew in a deep breath, exhaling slowly. “You have selective memory. I also said that I didn’t like you. At all.”

“That’s alright, darling. If given the chance, I know I can make you like me as much as you want me.”

She opened her mouth to protest but nothing would come out.

“Let’s sit down,” he suggested.

Alexis shook her head. She folded her arms, gave a firm nod, showing that she had every intention of staying a safe distance from the nearest exit.

Jerry smiled. “Or we can remain standing.”

“I really think you should go back to what you were saying before. If you’re in trouble, Jerry, the only way I can help is if you tell me about it.”

“Not right now.” The playful manner his voice had taken on faded. Confident she wouldn’t leave, he moved about the room.

Alexis said, “I won’t judge you. I’ll just listen.”

“I want to tell you, I do, but not yet. I want to get you to like me first.”

She laughed quietly. “That could take a while, Jerry, and it doesn’t sound like you have much time.”

“I don’t think it would take all that long, Alexis.”

“In the end, it doesn’t really matter whether I like you or not. You and I can never be, well, anything. You can never be more than my best friend’s trouble-making brother who often needs a lawyer to get him out of said trouble.”

Jerry scowled. “How can you decide that before we’ve had the chance to find out if we could be something more?”

“Because I just know,” she told him.

“Right, right,” Jerry whispered, circling back around the room to stand in front of Alexis. “Women’s intuition and all that. But you also believe in fairness, don’t you? Innocent until proven guilty?”

Alexis hesitated and offered a vague nod of her head. “Well…”

“Allow me to plead my case, counselor.” Jerry reached around Alexis, clearing a spot on the desk. She eyed him suspiciously and then sat on the empty edge, crossing one ankle over the other. He paced back and forth in front of her, one hand in his pocket. “You enjoy fine dining, yes?”

She squinted at him. “What are you trying to prove, Jerry?”

“Just answer the questions before you, Ms. Davis.”

“Yes,” she blurted out.

Jerry smiled. “You like a glass of expensive wine? From time to time, you take pleasure in leaving your children with a babysitter while you put on a fancy dress and engage in adult conversation and beverages, yes?”

“Well, I suppose…”

“So it could be inferred, Ms. Davis, that if I were to take you to a nice restaurant, order a bottle of their most expensive wine, and swap stories about our very different but equally remarkable families or education, you would enjoy yourself?”

“There is…” she stumbled over her words. “In the broadest sense, yes, I suppose.”

Jerry folded his hands, tapping his index fingers against his lips as he paced in front of her, working on his next question.

“This is ridiculous.” Alexis stood from the edge of the desk.

“You haven’t let me finish. When was the last time you had an evening like that, Alexis?”

The first thing that came to mind was the Black and White Ball, before it became the scene of one too many deaths and mortal injuries. Alexis bit her lip; it was Jerry she had danced with, shared champagne with, and truth be told, had dressed up for the benefit of. She didn’t need to answer out loud – he saw in her eyes what she was remembering.

“Close your eyes,” he whispered.

“Not a chance,” Alexis retorted, but she did close her eyes. There was something about the low rasp of his voice that made it impossible to resist.

Jerry stood just to the right of her, not quite behind her. “I want you to see yourself dressed up, Alexis. I want you to see the two of us sharing a meal and a good bottle of wine. You’re content. Intrigued. Turned on.” He let his hand graze her hip and felt Alexis shiver. Behind her, his words were warm against her neck. “Afterward, I’d walk you through the park. To the gazebo.” He was on her other side, his fingers moving slowly across her back. “There would be no music, but we’d dance anyway.” The front of his body brushed against her as he moved to stand in front of her, his hand on her hip while the other reached up to trace a line along her jaw.

Alexis’ lips parted. She felt her knees weaken and if Jerry hadn’t been holding her, she was certain she’d crumble.

He found her hand, clasping their fingers together. “And then-”

Alexis tipped her head forward, the gentle press of her mouth to his silencing Jerry. He leaned forward, pushing Alexis against the edge of the desk, and opened his mouth against hers. He felt Alexis hook her leg around his and Jerry deepened the kiss, tilting her back.

She felt fevered, felt the heat of his kiss from her toes to her belly to her flushed cheeks. Alexis found herself pushing forward, turning them around, making two complete circles before she fell back onto the sofa, pulling Jerry down on top of her.

When he lifted his head to take a breath, Alexis pressed a finger to his swollen lips. “Wait,” she panted. “I think you should tell me now. About the bad thing you think is going to happen.”

“Now?” Jerry questioned, noting with pleasure that her leg was still hooked around his, her foot moving up and down his calf.

Alexis shrugged.

“Does this mean I succeeded in getting you to like me?”

“You make a very convincing argument.”

He knew he wouldn’t be able to distract her from his confession forever, but he knew the moment Alexis was aware that he’d been asked to kill Sonny, whatever progress he made with her would be tested. Jerry settled further against her, drawing a slow moan from Alexis’ lips. “Do you still want me to tell you right now?” he asked.

Alexis reveled in the hot, heavy weight of his body. She shook her head. “You know, on second thought, I’m not sure I like you yet. I could use a little more testimony as to-”

He captured her lips in another searing kiss. Thoughts of the docks, the gloomy water, and his unsavory business associates grew further and further away. Caught in the tight, needy circle Alexis’ arms made around him, Jerry felt closer to the life he truly wanted.