Galatea

Galatea Chapter Forty Two (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch, and Uberbeta...*sends anti-sinusitis energy * InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink and Dracena get big heaps of muse kibble for archiving/hosting. ProPhile, I dub thee Mary Sue Number One. Readers/Reviewers: Word to the wise: don't try belly dancing OR fire dancing when recovering from food poisoning. Just...don't... *shudder * And *glomps * to the other Michael for his idea and platypi hugs to everyone still reading/reviewing!

"Seriously, I know I'm not really sincere or whatever, but thanks for watching Lucas at the last minute like this..."
Kitty smiled and took the baby from Wanda. "Oh, you're plenty sincere. Sometimes. I think."
Wanda rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well, me an' Tabby decided we need...er...alone time."
Kitty nodded slowly. "Um...okay..." _Please don't describe, _ she added mentally.
The Scarlet Witch sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. "Me and Tabby been fighting a lot lately. She's mad because I'm having to bust my ass and find a job and all, and she's..." Lucas started squirming in Kitty's arms and snuffling. "Damn it... I never can tell if he's all precog-y or if he's just hungry. There's some bottles of breast milk in the dr bar bag but try to give him cereal, too."
Tabby chose that moment to reappear from the bathroom. "Hey there...how's my boy?" she cooed.
Kitty blinked. "That was...odd."
"Yeah, I think it's the estrogen," Tabby sighed, Eskimo-kissing1 Lucas.
Wanda made a muted snorting noise. "C'mon, we're gonna be late..."
Tabby kissed Lucas with a sigh of regret and favored Kitty with a wan smile. "He's been trying to crawl. Keep an eye on him, okay?"
"Sure thing...wave by to Moms..." She made Lucas wave.
"Come ON, Tabby," Wanda groaned. "Let's go!"
Tabby held her tongue until they were in the car and underway. "You don't have to be such a bitch about it. He's my son, God damn it, and if I want to say goodbye to him, I will."
Wanda groaned. "Tabs, I don't mind it. I love the little snotmonkey. But I was just worried about our reservations..."
Tabby made a soft snort of disapproval and stared out of the passenger side window as they drove towards town. After several minutes, she snapped, "If you're gonna dump me, do it now. Don't drag it out!"
Wanda slammed on the breaks, making the car behind them swerve and it's driver shout as they went around them. "Do what?"
"You're going to breakwithwith me. I know. It's okay. I'm okay with it..."
Wanda bit back a swear and instead asked as calmly as she could manage, "You're okay with it? I wish I would have known that before taking you out tonight. Hell, I could have spent the evening breaking things and trying to get over my feelings for you!"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Why do you think I want to break up with you?"
"And I quote, 'Some people need to make up their minds,' in reference to bisexuals!"
Wanda groaned and let her head hit the steering wheel. "I was talking about your friend, whatsherface."
"Huh? Brenda from the parenting group?"
"Yeah, her...if she's bi, I'm the Pope!"
"What the fuck...huh?" Tabby wrinkled her nose in confusion. "Why were you talking about her?"
Wanda groaned anew, this time in frustration. "You don't remember when I picked you up last week?"
"Not really...last week...Lucas was sick. I didn't notice much of anything other than green snot and nasty diapers."
"Your little friend Brenda came on to me outside of the class room..."
"That slut!"
"Chill, Tabby. She wouldn't know what to do with a woman if she had a diagram," Wanda sighed. "She went on and on about how hard it is to be bi, how much she hated "bree" an" and all this bullshit when she didn't have the first clue about anything. Just bitching for attention."
"You said you hate breeders," she sulked.
"Did not. I said some people, like that Brenda chick, need to decide. And I don't understand liking a guy so that's gonna throw me about you, but ya know, so long as you still...like...care about...me...I don't care of you're lesbian, bi, tri..."
"Tri?"
"Women, men, hermaphrodites," Wanda extemporized.
Tabby smiled faintly. "Right. Of course."
Wanda shrugged and pressed on. "I don't want to break up with you. There. Plain and simple."
She frowned anew. "But...Why have you been acting so wei
"
"I'm working two jobs," she admitted after a brief hesitation. "Wal Mart during the day and a new one in Riverside at night."
"Riverside? What the Hell are you doing there?"
"Um...don't worry about it."
"Wanda...don't lie to me."
"I just...I don't want to say. It's embarrassing." She shifted into gear and swung away from the curb, heading into town again.
"Tell me or I'll cry."
"You wouldn't,"
Tabby took a breath and began to sniffle. After a moment, tears began to run down her cheeks. "Please?" she whimpered. "Tell me?"
"Evil little bitch," Wanda sighed.
Tabby smiledGot Got it in one. Now tell me!"
"Dancing," she said shortly.
"Dancing? Like...ballet?" she hazarded.
"You know better."
Tabby bit her tongue, letting the tense silence between them stew for a few more minutes. "Can I come watch?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"It's degrading!"
She decided to let that pass. "You know, I was worried you were off me."
"So I gathered."
"I was thinking of trying to go militant for you or something. Show you I wasn't just in this because...because."
"If you were just in this because," Wanda said carefully, "I would have expected you to have bailed before now."
"Ah."
"If you were just in this to be cool or whatever the fuck it is those poser high school freaks do it for, you'd have bailed after the first time we...you know."
"You think?"
"I know. It's happened before." She turned the car into the restaurant parking lot and sighed. "Look, don't worry about what I think of you or anyone else does...fuur our opinion. Are you happy with you?"
"Uh...yeah."
"Then who gives a fuck about the rest of us?"
Tabby mulled this over as she got out of the car. "Hey, Wanda?"
"Yo?"
"Don't call our son a snotmonkey."
1 That silly thing where you rub noses.