With A Word You Dry My Tears (Percie)

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If Derek smoked, he'd probably be enjoying a cigarette or cigar right about now. The movies always make it seem like the thing to do after a particularly enjoyable scene of intimacy, though Derek didn't see the appeal for it aside from the stick and smoke simply being an accessory for the atmosphere. As a former medical practitioner, Derek discouraged smoking in others, and absolutely refused it in himself. He wasn't about to die an early death from emphysema or some other smoke related illness over a stupid little thing like tobacco.

And while Derek admitted that alcohol could be far more dangerous, Derek wasn't stupid and would never let such stupidity induced accidents happen to him(spoken like a true alcoholic!). He was still feeling the fuzz of his last drink, however, so was planning on lounging next to the beautiful naked brunette for a while longer.

The beautiful brunette who had curiously curled herself away from him. "Percie...?" He said her name with dry concern. Did she not enjoy herself? Impossible, Derek was always an excellent, considerate, experienced partner. He even had women half his age coming after him for that reason alone. Tak, specifically. He'd spoken of the girl earlier in the night....and there was a brief thought that Percie might be too attached, just enough to have distaste of him seeing another, younger(and probably more exuberant) woman alongside the over 30-year-old former policewoman. "If you have some complaint," he started with some irritation in his voice, "then just say it already." Instead of acting like a petulant, 12-year-old child.

[Percie Hobbes]

It had only been a few months since Percie had learned that her life-long dream of eventually bringing a child into this world had been cruelly dashed. She had scheduled fertility appointments, discussed treatments...discussed her eggs of all things. But everything had come back with the same news. "Sorry, there's nothing to be done..." it made her feel worse about herself every time. She was trying to work through it...at least she had told her parents and even though they had taken the news hard, their reassurances didn't help matters. Especially when her father had thoughtlessly blurted out that her brother and sister could take care of that. He'd apologized later but Percie had already lived in a thousand scenarios in which she was a doting, affectionate aunt and babysitter to a litter of nieces and nephews and yet her home would be quiet at the end of the day.

She’d been working herself hard ever since the news and had started smoking a little more than casually when work got to be too much. When she thought she was smoking too much she started drinking and when she woke up with a hangover so bad she could hardly move out of bed she knew it was time for a different kind of comfort. However being with Derek didn’t always calm her the way it should have. Certainly she enjoyed the sex, but in the end she had to remember that Derek didn’t know about her problem and the thing that hurt the most is that she was convinced he wouldn’t care. Now of course she had a slightly more depressing matter to think about which was, that instead of not caring about her problem, he’d hate her. She’d seen him and Tak around town a few times and far from being jealous (she understood that they didn’t have anything close to an exclusive relationship) she’d been curious.

She’d learned a few things about the woman and about Derek also. In her understanding Derek admired women able to bear children…did that mean that he would no longer admire her when she told him? IF she told him?! The thoughts were running through her head as she had curled away. This wasn’t supposed to happen now! She was supposed to be relaxed and basking in the afterglow of what had been some REALLY nice sex! And yet she felt closer to the verge of tears than she had all day.

Derek’s tone and statement did not help in the least. Percie suddenly just felt so ANGRY. Derek got to be a parent and HE didn’t want to be for YEARS until it was convenient for him. Yet here she was one of the ONLY things she had ever wanted and she couldn’t have it. She sat up quickly and reached for her stockings. Her first instinct had been right, there was no way Derek would care, how could he POSSIBLY understand?

“Complaint? About what? The sex? Absolutely not, the sex was fantastic as always,” she said more aggressively than she intended as she slipped the first stocking up over her thigh and grabbed the next one, practically shoving her foot into it. A tear appeared; she’d have to throw these away later. She reached for her underwear next and yanked them on. “Good to know that all the practice paid off.” If she hadn’t been so angry already and stressed and tired perhaps she could have made that teasing, she would have…had it been before this…now it just sounded petty and jealous.

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There was a deep misunderstanding going on between these two on the matter of child bearing. Perhaps it was due to Derek being unable to explain it clearly enough? Or perhaps it was due to Percie being so desolate in her own birthing ability that it affected her ability to hear straight? That is, her mind twisted his words into meaning something far different and more distasteful than it was meant to be.

Derek did not admire women who could bear children, per se, but rather admired women who knew how to make smart decisions in regard to having and raising children. For example, Tak was a woman who found herself pregnant when she herself was still a child. Rather than risk the wellbeing of the child in some selfish motherly attachment by insisting that she, as a single mother with barely the means to support herself, Tak instead let go of that attachment and allowed the child to be placed in a more supportive, stable environment. That wasn’t to say that the girl didn’t care for her child - Tak had informed the former doctor that she made arrangements for visitation with her baby girl - but rather that she cared enough about the child to make a smart decision for her sake.

Conversely, Myndi, Phoenix’s mother, initially hadn’t even told Derek that the boy had been born - he wouldn’t have wanted anything to do with the raising of the child anyway - and then came after him for child support when she couldn’t hold it together alone anymore.

That situation, however, was the furthest thing from Derek’s mind in regards to what could possibly be upsetting the stunning woman. Her passive aggressiveness and lack of stating things clearly were what irritated him. “Very well then,” he replied with a subtle glare, watching as Percie rushed to get her things together. If she really was getting attached in that way, and was going to start throwing fits because of his association with other women, then Derek had no issues with severing their casual relationship in a heartbeat.

“…..is this about Tak?” he asked. If she wasn’t going to be direct, then he would.