SquidgeWorld Archive

Evil Net - A Sully Backstory
by Sue

"I'm back when I'm back, Jouse."

Hadn't they already had this conversation?  Yeah, you bet; right before going to bed.  Now here they were, having it again, and he'd be leaving soon, real soon, thanks and no thanks, at the same time, to his old friend Billy Tyne.

"So...what does that mean?"

Early morning Sully was a cranky Sully, more like sullen, but he was going away for who knew how long, wouldn't have her near, so he tried to sound patient even if he wasn't feeling it.  Thing was, when he upset her, he wound up only hurting himself, really.  She was his conscience.

He made a grab for the beer bottle, the one he hadn't quite finished from last night.  It sat on the drab parquet floor, which was stained in numerous places, to the sofa's left.  He took a long pull from the bottle and just stared at her after lowering the bottle's lips from his.

"I can't tell ya what I sure as hell don't know.  I'm not goin' to some office; I'm fishin' the freakin' Grand Banks with Billy in bitchy October."  Seeing the hurt gathering in her non-judgmental eyes, he dulled the edge of his tone.  "It means a real income instead of livin' from hand to mouth since Labor Day.  Odd jobs is my middle name and this summer was still a real bust.  Winter's comin', ya know."

"Sure, winter's coming, Davey.  I know that..."

'Nothing like stale beer for breakfast,' he carelessly entertained, letting his mind float until he recalled what he was saying.  "It'll be a pretty cold and hungry one for you and the kids if I keep
bringin' paychecks that cover less than squat."

"When do I complain?"  It wasn't as though she didn't have a job; she did, a low paying one, a job she was thankful she had since jobs were hard to come by in this locale.

"If ya did more, maybe you wouldn't freak me out as much as you do."

"And what's 'that' supposed to mean?"  She made a swipe at his bottle, trying to get it away from him, but he held it well off, out of her reach.

"As girlfriends go, you're practically zero maintenance."  He glanced at her sidelong with a crinkling of his nose, waiting for her to take the bait he loved to dangle.  "Why's that?"  He willed the serious look on his face to keep up the pretense.  He loved seeing her get worked-up when she fell headlong for his blarney.
 
"A girlfriend you knocked-up with twins, and it's a problem that I don't hemorrhage complaints?"

"Hungry little bastards at that."  His lower lip was twitching like mad; he clamped down and forced himself to keep up the stern act.

"Davey!  Is that any way to talk about our beautiful love babies?"

He finished what was left in the bottle and rested his head on the top of the sofa's backrest.  "How'd I get so lucky?"  He made it sound as though he was anything but.

Jouisy straddled his lap.  Her hands were at the back of his head and she braided her fingers, lifting his head off the sofa, so his gaze was level with hers.  Now, she could target that accepting smile of hers at Sully full blast.  "How'd I?"  Her tone was candid.

The empty bottle fell from his hand so he could pull her into his lap properly.  "Love you and our kids," he funneled into her ear.  "Gotta feed my merry band, don't I?"

"They take after you in the hunger department."

"And, well...you satisfy that for me too, like you do for them, Jouse."  He said her name as though being on the same wavelength was as easy as breathing.  "Juicy Jouse..."  He played dirty then by
tickling her.  She was helpless in the face of strong fingers showing her no mercy.

She begged for him to stop.  He surprised her when he did, promptly.  "Yep, that's my job," she agreed, laughing the way she did when she saw the world as only she could, all rosy and brimming with hope that had no chance of evaporating like fog off the sea when the noonday sun shone its brightest.  She tried getting up, but now Sully had her pinned down on their ratty sofa that they had salvaged from a local yard sale, with no thought of his letting her up any time soon.  He reeked of beer that had gone all flat and virility, in faded somewhat threadbare jeans.  She dug the fingers of her delicate hands into his warm scalp so she could tousle his hair the way he liked.  "Satisfying my gorgeous boys..."

Sully snuggled his head into the comfy niche between her chin and the rise of her breasts.  "I want my snack now!  While juniors one and two are fast asleep."

"Yeah, I bet you do."

"Have a heart.  Me, on that frickin' swordfish boat with that crew of hard luck cases..."

"With you being the foremost case..." Jouisy teased in raw affection.

Sully craned his neck, positioning his head so his lips were flush with her soft, cinnamon-scented flesh.  "Me bein' the loser who's gonna miss ya like crazy.  C'mon...ya know..."  He nuzzled her smile, which so often was inherent with her mouth, with the tip of his arrow- straight nose.  "I wanna make sure I don't forget what you feel like while I'm in the prison with water instead of freakin' bars."

She squirmed her lips around his, as he plied her with insistent kisses, enough to say, "Now, where have I heard it said that sword fishermen are the best lovers?  Wait...you, right?"

"Nope, that's Bugsy's line; thinkin' he's gonna score talkin' crap like that," Sully needled.  "I go fishin' with Billy only when he asks me.  We go way back, since junior high.  We'd fish off a Ten
Pound Island days we cut."

"I know, you've said."

Soberingly, Sully noted, "He couldn't have asked at a better time." Loving the softness of her face, he brightened for her sake.  "He knows I'm a jack of all trades."  Regret filtered through, tingeing his broken voice.  "We both know I'm a master a none."

"Oh, I wouldn't say none, Hotlips..."

After their torrid kiss ended leisurely, Sully huskily continued, "Baby, he's as desperate as I am, needing to make real cash.  You heard me tell him I'd think about it, but he knew I wouldn't turn him down the second he stepped into Sean's workshop. He needs to score big on this turnaround or blow this entire season, lose his site.  Brown'll yank him and get somebody else who'll get the fish.  Me...I got our family to make a big killin' for." Tenderly, Sully began kissing her eyes, enjoying the sensory magic of feeling her eyeballs scrape against their lids.

"Part-time sword fisherman, full-time lover, Davey," she whispered.

"Full-time whatever you need me to be for you and the kids, babe."

"So, it'll be you and the guys just being really good friends shipboard."  She rolled her eyes with the lids still closed.

Sully captured her giggles in his mouth when his covered hers. Against her lips, he murmured, "Good friends my ass--get this good. When you catch the report about murder on the high seas aboard the 'Andrea Gale,' you heard it here first.  Anybody makes any frickin' moves in my direction, it's their funeral."

"Whoa, tough guy."

"Hey, I'm just sayin'."

"So...it's Bugsy, uh...Bobby, Alfred Pierre..."

"And Murph, don't forget Murph the sonofa--"

Jouisy suddenly opened her eyes for a terrific close-up of Sully's chapped lips; dried blood, a day old, had formed on the right side of his lower lip.  Frowning, she freely let her worry, that was teamed with incredulity, show.  "How great of an idea is that, Genius? Deb's ex?  Going to sea with the man you made a fool of by fooling around with his wife behind his back?  Are you nuts?  You'll kill each other.  Babe, you don't ask for trouble, you get down on your knees and beg for it."

"Beg?  Hell.  You're the beggar in this family."  She kneed him in the ribs, not to hurt him of course, and gruffly, Sully defended, "Forget that, Jouse.  I don't mean that the way I sounded. Look, he don't start none, won't be none."

"Yeah...ri-ght, Mister Cool, Calm and Collected...let's step outside and we'll settle this like Gloucester men.  Easy to say now, but working together, eating together, sleeping together, there's bound--"

"Sleeping?  I sure as hell won't be sleepin' with 'him.'  You know me long enough to know I don't swing that way.  Women get me hot, not--"

"Women?" Jouisy pounded in correction, like hitting a nail with a sledgehammer.

"Woman," Sully rectified faster than barreling greased lightning.  "You...my Jouse."

"Yours, till death comes along to mess us up."

Sully fished for her left hand and kissed its ring finger that sported the 'engagement ring' he'd given her over a month ago.  It was a simple wedding band, not wholly gold, but, 'close enough,' as Sully had told her.  The fancy, jeweled official engagement ring would come after the hoped-for windfall from this job came.  "First thing I do when I get back."

"First thing 'we' do."

"Yeah, we.  Promise."

Another wave of nausea hit her hard.  There was no predicting this; every time was different.  Unable to hide the distress that had registered on her face, Sully stopped fondling her abdomen.  His eyes filled with concern, making her wince.  "Whoa, Baby..." Sully murmured.  "What's the matter?" Sully anxiously asked.

"It's n-nothing..."

"Like hell it ain't."  Carefully, he sat her up and asked her again, sounding a lot more patient.  "What's nothing?"

Jouisy rolled her eyes.  "I know what you want, Davey, since you won't be getting any for a while.  I'm not..."  Automatically, her hand went to her stomach and unconsciously she began rubbing circles upon it in an effort to ease the crimp of the cramp in a series that had come on, gripping her suddenly.

"Stop lyin'.  I know when ya are.  It's got nothin' to do with not bein' in the mood, I know ya too well."

"It's getting late.  You'll be late," she fended, trying her best to put him off.  "I'm not in the mood for a quickie..."

"Screw a quickie.  What's wro--"

"Billy will come get you."

"The hell he will"  Sully's eyes crossed.  "What is it--damn it!" The blue-mouthed sailor in him was this close to letting every curse he knew fly even though he hated cursing like one around Jouisy.  She rarely used profanity; when he was with her, he tried swearing off the dirty words.  "Son-of-a--"

"N-nothing."  Her eyes crossed too then...another crashing wave of malaise swept through her and it was a gut-twister.  One look at Sully's face, and Jouisy knew fooling him was like winning a
sweepstakes, which wasn't her style.  She wasn't a winner.  At least, she didn't feel like one when things got away from her.  Having another mouth to feed and they could barely scrape enough together to feed the ones they already had.  'Birth control, you should try it sometimes, loserette' tailedspinned in her mind.  Yet, halfheartedly, she persisted, "Really, I'm okay.  You'd better get going, or you'll miss the boat."  She went to get up from the sofa, but Sully yanked her arm to plunk her down.

"Yeah, I'll go, when I'm ready," he blustered, making much of his innate bravado.  Missing the boat wasn't an option.  He had to go, or they would be going without a lot.  But before he did, he had to know what was the matter; he wasn't going anywhere like this.  "Billy ain't a truant officer.  I'm a big boy.  If I miss the boat, the hell with it, I miss it.  I will if you don't tell me what's up with you...right now!"

"Maybe I don't want to..."  She braced herself for his temper firing.

Right on cue, his voice got a lot louder.  "I'm not clearing outta here until you tell me what the hell's wrong with you!"

She grimaced, knowing that look he wore on his truculent face all too well.  She had more of a chance taming a bull, it letting her put daisies between its horns, than subduing her angry husband-to-be.  "Okay, okay.  Don't bite my head off."

"Only when you make me, so spill it--and make it quick!"

Giving him her variation of the look he grilled her with, she admitted, "I was really late, so I got a kit.  According to the stick, I'm pregnant, Davey...again."

"Preg?"  Sully went stone silent, feeling his own stomach roll over and seize.  "How fa--"  The immediate thought crashed in his mind...'Damn, how can I leave now?  She's got her hands full with Danny and Dewey and now another on the way makes three.  If this pregnancy is anything like...oh, crap.'

"Eight, nine weeks, I figure, give or take."

"And when were you goin' to tell me?"

"Soon.  But, soon came sooner, like now," she said, sighing in resignation confirmed.

Sully went all silent on her again, his thinking all over the place.

"Davey?" Jouisy whispered, going pale, having feared this would be his reaction.  Could she blame him?  Did she blame herself?  Her tears formed quickly and before she could control them, several escaped from her eyes which felt tired and scratchy from lack of sleep.  The word dynamo hardly did him justice.  He could make love and be raring to go for many extra innings way before the sheets cooled.  "Don't be....  You're mad.  Please, don't be mad."  She buried her face in her trembling hands, feeling her world suddenly have its legs knocked out from under.

The piteous ache in her voice broke his heart.  "Jouse..." he said, sounding hoarse, as though he had lost his voice in a shouting match.  "I'm not mad.  I'm just...just."

"Screwed," she heaved as though much of her wind had been slammed out of her.  "Huh?  Like having another nail driven into your coffin. The twins have a long way to go before they're out of diapers, and here I am ready to toss another itty bitty hiney into the mix."

"No way," he negated in furious rebuttal, and stubbornly weighted her shoulders with his hands.  "Nah, like you were saving this for great comin' home news, 'cause that's what it is, Jouse."  With his open hand, he dabbed at her face to erase some of the wetness.  "Why the tears?  Unless they're tears of joy, Baby."

"Ha, yeah.  Ha, ha.  I'm busting with joy, soon to be busting out of my clothes, and when the twins are just about to teethe, that'll be just great at two a.m. when all three of them start screaming at the top of their lungs.  We're, we're broker than broke, and all you have to do is give me 'that look' and bam, one's in the oven faster than homemade bread."

Sully chuckled deep in his throat, agreeing how true it was, how easy it was for them to get with child, and it tickled him, tickled him pink.  Before the twins, she'd miscarried twice, and there had been some touch and go moments with them.  "Fertile, say 'hello' to red-blooded.  The Force is with us."

"The Force?"  She smiled in spite of her despair; she smiled solely for him.  He was the love of her life, but he was the biggest kid, sometimes.  "Everything isn't about 'Star Wars,' Davey."

"Think how great it would be if it was.  Reality sucks big time."

"Tell me about it how much it sucks.  Princess Leia I'm not."

"Stop talkin' crazy.  Who needs her?  I got you.  You've got the balls and the beauty all over her."  He smiled devilishly and in his best Han Solo takeoff, he urged, "Trust me.  We're gonna have another kid and that's great, I swear."

"You're not mad?"

"What?  Am I speakin' a foreign language all of a sudden?  I'm happy, totally cool with you havin' another of our kids.  Would Han lie? Trust me."

"So, when do I get my lightsaber, Obi-Wan?" Jouisy bantered.  "Oh, that reminds me...the 'Empire Strikes Back' rental is overdue, and I bet you forgot to rewind it."

"Nope, I did, and I already took it back."

"How much?"

"Okay, so it was two weeks late; don't worry about it."

"Like I worry, right?"

"Sometimes, yeah...like a moment ago."

She hugged him and her smile ate him alive.

Sure, the account in the neighborhood bank was a running joke.  There was barely any furniture in this one-bedroom walk-up apartment over the twenty-four/seven video store.  The T.V., he bought from a friend, was twelve years old.  The refrigerator contained more empty space than food filling it.  They made toast in the oven, not a toaster.  Sully shrugged; he didn't care.  Life was good as long as Jouisy was in his; she made life better than livable.  She made it fun, the adventure he knew it always could be, despite the blistering ups-and-downs.  She was his drug, his salvation from a life that was best described as a steamy bog of bar brawls, tawdry, demeaning liaisons and senseless waste of his time along with his emotions.

She gave him her craziest woebegone look, and spoke what she couldn't get out of her mind even though she knew what would come from him next.  "Birth control...say it with me."

"No."

"I should try it before they start saying my name in the same breath with the old woman in the shoe...Sully's old lady, what should she do?  She has so many children, 'cause all she does is--"

His wicked grin cut her off.  "Hey, what can I say?  I can't get enough of you, and vice versa," he teased, oozing the swagger that women found flat-out irresistible.  Sternly, he said, "I told ya I don't want ya takin' the pill; that crap'll junk up your body."

"And having babies all the time won't?" she badgered.

"We're a baby makin' machine...you and me make 'em the old-fashioned way," Sully kidded, contemplating the sinking pain flickering in her face...that beautiful, unmarred face that did all kinds of crazy stuff to his heart.  He laughed broadly then.  "I told ya, if you want me to, I'll do the thing."

"No!" she protested in vehemence.  "I won't have my man de-sexed!"

"As long as I'm with you, that's impossible...but cool.  There's always the cons."

"And I know how much you hate using them."

"I do, but if usin' 'em will make ya happy."

Her eyes pinned him down.  With a shake of her head, she decided.  "After this one, I'll pick something that won't involve corporeal weirdness," she said with an engaging grin and patted one
of his butt cheeks.  "At least not totally."  Then, thinking out loud, she muttered while lifting an eyebrow, "A dia..."  She shook her head, and said more definitively, "The sponge...yeah, bingo.  I could give that a whirl, what the heck."

Grinning like a goof, he obliged, "This time, it's gotta be a girl, and she's gotta be exactly like you, down to the very last freckle."

"Baby, I love you so much," Jouisy exclaimed, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing the blood out of his lips.  She broke off long enough to gush, "Don't go, don't go...don't."  She piled into his mouth again, her tongue leading the way, in total abandonment.  "I'm missing you already like crazier than crazy!"

Hungrily, they came up for air.  Effectively, her queasiness had been pushed into a distant memory.  Though wheezing, Sully said, "I'll be back before you know it, bringing you so much money, we'll chuck it into the bedroom and roll all in it.  You, and little cutie-patootie on-the-way, Dewey, Danny and me!"

"I don't care about money."

"Oh, right away, and that's why you're the world's best bookkeeper."

"Well...somebody has to count other people's money."  She worked part-time, most times from home, coming in when needed, for a local marine supplier.  While Jouisy was a student at Gloucester High School, the mainstay of her commercial course had been bookkeeping classes. She'd been an A plus student, barely having to study, and acing exams with nineties, easy.

Aping her, Sully incited, "I know what you care about, sweetie."

She nodded, taking his face in her hands and squeezing its sides, stamping both his cheeks with her appreciative lips.  "I only care about you."

"And..."

"And our kids."

"And..."

Jouisy smiled, touching her nose to his.  "And?"  She looked puzzled.

"And how fast I can say, 'I do,' he told her with a smarmy lilt to his voice.

"I'll say it faster," she fired back.

Impassioned, they eagerly embraced again, without giving what time it was another thought until whimpers from Dewey, who was a minute older than his brother, snagged his mother's attention.

Gradually retreating from her man's face, Jouisy said, "He's hungry."

"Like his old man, but I'll eat when I get back."  Sully swatted her rear end and watched her go for their bedroom to get their son before rakishly adding, "You'd better have plenty of what I like when I get back."

"You're easy to satisfy," she, in kind, tossed over her shoulder.

Sully began collecting a few more things to stuff into his duffle bag.  He hadn't packed many outer clothes, but he crammed in enough underwear to last him two months, if need be.  He waited for her to return with the 'whimperer,' which she soon did.  It was always Dewey, a teary, spittle-stained much younger version of his dad.  "Hey, ol' man, what's up?"  He mussed up his baby's downy fine hair, the color of his.  "Can't let your mom say goodbye to me without hornin' in?"  He lifted Dewey out of Jouisy's arms and started heading for the door.  She followed after Sully, carrying his duffle.

The baby studied his father's face as though ready to impart some sage words of wisdom about what to do and not do at sea.  "Gotta go make money," Sully said, sounding resigned.  "Man's gotta do, or else he gets a bad rep of bein' a dead beat so-and-so.  Now, buster, you and your partner in crime be good while I'm gone.  Give Momma trouble, and you don't get invited to the wedding.  Just baby brother and little sis'll be there."  He placed his hand on Jouisy's belly, playfully giving it a light squeeze.

"Baby, be careful," Jouisy counseled, tight-lipped, in a tight-sounding voice, willing her tears to stay where they were and not  fall so Sully would feel bad.  The last thing she wanted was for him to carry her anxiety with him; there'd be plenty of anxiety just being shipboard with Murph and the sneaky, rude sea.  "Please..." She stiffened her lower lip and forced a cheery smile.  "I'll dream about you every night."  Telling the truth bailed her out, making her eyes shine.  She'd hold him close in her dreams.

"I'll be sure an' meet you in 'em."  He engulfed her, crushing her lithe, deceptively fragile body to his, hearing her gasp a little for the breath he was forcing out of her.  He breathed a sigh into her
glossy dark hair, drinking in its glorious fragrance, just holding her and their child, reluctant to forsake the tender familial huddle.  "I'll be all right, promise.  You know me; I don't take chances."

"Remember that show we watched last week on Discovery?  Or was it the History channel...oh, well...commercial fishing's one of the most dangerous jobs there is."

"Like I don't know?" he chided.  Assuredly, his lips found their way to the top of her head, kissing her again.  "Don't sweat it, babe, I'll be back.  Think you can get rid of me that easy?"

"You better not make me find out."

Daddy, mommy and baby came out of the apartment to stand on the porch at the back of the old New England style building.  It was damp; a grey morning, steeped in mist which was beginning to lift, but would take its time about it.  Sully glanced at his watch, noting how dangerously close it was getting to leaving time.  He knew that the guys were at the Crow's Nest, for a quick beer, maybe even a quick game of pool, before shoving off, as was the usual routine.  Billy had made it plain that the 'Andrea Gale' was sailing promptly at five forty.  The street she and he lived on wasn't that far from the piers the 'Crow's Nest' overlooked, but if he didn't get a move on, he would be late and out of a job that had the potential of being the best he'd had in too long a time.

"Baby, I gotta go."

Jouisy eased her face away from his, just looking at David as though she was memorizing his face, so she'd never forget its every detail and the complexity of the man who owned it.  Sully kissed the wedding band before kissing Dewey's downy cheek; smoothly, his mouth gravitated back to his girl's lips that were moistened by her tears.

He began pulling away, but she wouldn't let him go, with Dewey starting to whimper.

"Babe, I'm gonna miss it."

"That's my plan."  Her lips had a tenacity all their own, earnestly clinging to his that really had no desire to depart from hers either.

"'I dos' as soon as I hit the dock, promise."

"Well," she squeezed between his lips, "I'll let you change first. Not a fan of the fishy smell."

"Our bread and butter, Jouse."

Nodding, she pressed her mouth against his one last frantic time before watching him take up his bag and streak down the stairway to the deserted street.  Once there, he looked up, homing in on his fledging family, focusing on them as they stood waving back at him from the railed porch.  With an unlit cigarette teetering on his bottom lip, and he waving goodbye like a maniac, Sully shouted up at them, "Love ya!  'Bye!"

He blew kisses, and was gone...

end