Chapter 51
Jax had damage control to do. He knew his selection for the challenge would piss Bailey off, but he also knew that he needed Bailey in order to succeed in the trial. No one in the group had more experience crafting an image or growing a brand than her.
Knock, knock, knock. Jax rapped on the girls’ room’s door. His sister answered, “I had a feeling you’d be coming by. You know it’s almost one a.m., though, right?”
“Yeah, sis, I do. I just real quick need ta’ talk with Bailey. How pissed is she?”
“I mean, she’s not letting it show,” June leaned in to whisper, “But she could use a win, ya know what I mean?”
“I got you. Thanks,” Jax said before he raised his voice and shouted, “Hey, Bailey! Come meet up with me for a few if you’ve got a minute? I’ll be on the couch.” He gave his sister a little wink and went out to the common room to wait for Bailey. Jax needed to approach the situation delicately due to the fact that Bailey could be hot-headed, and sometimes got hyper-focused on her own goals, letting the big picture fall away. But he had spent his whole life dealing with someone with those same qualities. Jax thought back on a myriad of tough conversations with his sister in the early days of "Summergate." He hated the term used by the media to describe his mom's scandal. June never understood why the family didn't go on offense, calling out hypocrisy and setting the record straight. Jax, however, understood that some situations were lose-lose, and that having Summerset's kids and husband on TV calling out detractors and trying to defend her would only look... well, defensive. It was in the last few years that Jax had learned the importance of tact and compromise. Those skills were sure to come in handy this week, especially now.
“Hey,” Bailey greeted him as she shuffled over to Jax on the common room sofa. “What’s up? It’s late, and we have a big meeting in the morning.”
He smiled and patted the seat next to him. “So, I know you were disappointed when they voted me team captain, and to add to that, I went with Ashley’s pick instead of yours to be our subject for the trial. Today couldn’t have been easy for you.”
“It’s all good, Jax. You win some, you lose some. If I couldn’t handle rejection, I would have crumbled under the bright lights a long time ago.” Jax could see the truth and hurt behind her eyes.
“Yeah, the bright lights.” Jax thought about how Bailey probably related to Silver Scream a lot, and he needed to make sure she knew that his choosing Shortfin Mako wasn’t a rejection of her. “Look, I know Silver Scream may have been easier for you to work with, being an actress from L.A. and all, but you are so good at all this P.R. stuff, I’m sure you can do a great job with Shortfin Mako, too! And, like Ashley said, this is our chance to make a difference at the same time we win this trial. Two birds and all that.”
Bailey sighed and looked away, “You think I pushed so hard for Silver Scream because she’s from Hollywood and is in the same industry as me? If you knew anything about actors, you would see the many flaws in that logic. Did you know I was adopted?” She smiled, but Jax saw a sadness behind her eyes.
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“No,” he answered softly. He didn’t want to disrupt Bailey’s flow. She was opening up for the first time, and Jax needed to tread carefully and allow her to do so.
“Yeah. When I was a baby. I never knew my bio parents. But my mom, who wasn’t even married, took me in and raised me as though I was her own kid. I didn’t even know I was adopted until recently. You know how I found out?”
Jax shook his head.
“See, I came home during my first semester of college,” Jax must have made a reaction to his surprise at hearing she had gone to college, because Bailey's posture changed slightly. “I was studying sociology. Didn’t graduate, though. Anyway, I came home late that night because I had driven all day. It was like, after midnight, and when I got home, I used my key and let myself in, and went to make a sandwich cuz I was super hungry from the drive. I didn’t want to wake my mom because it was so late, and I figured I could just see her in the morning anyway. So I was spreading mustard on a slice of bread, and I heard my mom moving around upstairs. I thought maybe she was using the bathroom, so I just kept on assembling my midnight snack. But a minute later, I heard her coming down the stairs, so I called out to her to let her know I was home. But she didn’t respond. I must have yelled, ‘Mom, I’m home! It’s just me!’ a few times before she rounded the corner. She had a gun pointed at me.” Tears welled in Bailey's eyes, but Jax could barely see them because she was staring at her feet. “I begged her. I begged. But she was shaking. She looked right through me. My own mom, the strong single woman that took me in as a baby and gave me my whole world... I looked right in her eyes, and she had no idea who I was. She looked at me like I was an intruder. A stranger. If I hadn’t had my powers, I’d be dead right now. Even with them, I hesitated.” She showed Jax a scar on her collarbone. “I thought there was no way my mom would shoot me. Me! What I didn’t know was that she wasn’t my mom in that moment. Not really, anyway. When we went to the ER, we met with some doctors, and it all led to her being diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimers. I left college to take care of her, and moved back home to L.A. and took acting back up.” Bailey laughed a little, “She’d had me doing commercials as a kid, so I had some connections.” Jax noticed Bailey glance over to assess his reaction, and he looked away to make sure she didn’t see his profound sadness. But he had failed. “Anyway,” she continued, wiping away a tear and trying to seem more upbeat, “it wasn’t that Silver Scream was an actress that drew me to her, it’s that she highlighted Alzheimer's research and charities in the dossier.”
“I get it,” Jax said. “I mean, I understand. Or, I can’t understand. I could never.”
Bailey laughed, “Ugh! This always happens when I tell people! It’s all good, Jax. I told you because I trust you, and I wanted to let you know why I might have seemed disappointed today. I know people think I’m petty and focused on stupid small things, so I didn’t want you to think of me in that way, too.”
“I don’t. Heck, you are at the top of the leaderboard for us challengers. You’re a badass,” he saw a natural lead-in to his reason for wanting to talk to Bailey in the first place, “which is why I need your help tonight. I have no idea what this whole task will entail, and I need your help coming up with a strategy before the meeting tomorrow so I don’t have a mutiny on my hands.”
“Well, what are you waiting for?” she looked at Jax expectantly, but he was just confused. “Put on a pot of coffee, it’s gonna be a long night!” They both laughed as he got up and wisely did as he was told. It was long ago that Jax learned not to talk back when a woman like Bailey or June gives you a direct order, especially when caffeine is involved.