Undiscovered Melody |COMPLETED|

Chapter 3

Every afternoon for the next week Marinette knocked on the door to Jagged Stone's hotel suite, was let in by Penny, and then gave Jagged updates on the posters and the new t-shirt designs she was working on for him. She also took the opportunity to talk about Luka and Juleka, trying her best to find out whether he could actually be their father. 

On the most recent visit, Jagged had pretended that he was busy composing a new song and couldn't be interrupted just so he didn't have to hear Marinette talk about those two teenagers any more. He just couldn't face the idea that he could be someone's father- fathers were just so . . . old! He wasn't old! And fathers had to be responsible and . . . stuff. Lots of other stuff he didn't even want to think about. Being a father definitely wasn't for him.

When Marinette finished updating Penny on the most recent t-shirt design she stopped talking and considered Penny. She wondered whether Penny may be able to help her friends. Penny and Jagged seemed really close. Maybe she could get him to talk.

"Penny, what do you think we should do?" asked Marinette.

Despite the vagueness of the question, Penny knew exactly what Marinette was asking. "I'll talk to him. I was hoping he'd want to find out the answer for himself and this wouldn't be necessary, but he generally doesn't like to face responsibility. This has really scared him," said Penny.

"I know my friends would really appreciate finding out the truth. I didn't want them to come with me until Jagged was willing to really talk to them. I don't want them to be hurt by him again," said Marinette. She started to gather all of her things and put them in her bag.

"I'll talk to him," Penny assured her. "I think it would be good for all of them to know the truth. Jagged's been really stressed about it- even Fang has noticed."

Marinette wondered how Penny knew that a crocodile was stressed and was about to ask before deciding that maybe she didn't actually want to know. She'd just keep even more distance between herself and Fang than usual until this all got straightened out. She closed her bag and put it on her shoulder. "Thanks, Penny! I'll talk to you again soon!" said Marinette and she showed herself out.

Penny took a breath to steel herself for what she needed to do and walked into the other room. She noticed Jagged was laying down on his back on the floor and was staring up at the ceiling.

"How's that new song coming along?" asked Penny, rolling her eyes at the obvious lack of work currently being done by Jagged.

"The what?" asked Jagged, startled out of his thoughts. "Oh, the song. Yeah, yeah, it's coming along."

"You should go and talk to her," said Penny.

"Talk to who?" asked Jagged, feigning confusion as to who she was referring to.

"You know who. You won't find out the answer unless you talk to Anarka. Don't you want to know?" asked Penny.

"Is that some kind of trick question?" he asked. "I was- am- perfectly happy with my life how it is. More than perfectly happy- ecstatically happy. I've got my guitar and Fang, and you're here- what more could I want?"  He was silent for a moment before muttering "I didn't ask for this."

"So, you've never even thought about having kids?" asked Penny.

"No! Kids are so messy and sticky- my guitars would never be safe- and they want your attention all the time!" said Jagged, envisioning jam spread across his beloved guitars.

Penny chuckled. "Jagged, the two that came to see you are teenagers. I'm pretty sure they are past the sticky phase and your guitars would be safe. And, they've got their own lives and interests. They aren't all that interested in yours. They want to make a connection and probably feel that if they knew who their father was, maybe they would learn something about themselves. Don't you want to know whether they could be your kids? I assume that since you've been so stressed out about it that it's at least a possibility, right?" Penny tried to get a look at his eyes to see whether what he was going to say was the truth or not. She could always tell if he was lying by the way he wouldn't quite meet her gaze.

Jagged tried to say that it wasn't possible, but Penny's gaze pulled him in and before he knew what he was saying out popped "Yes, it's possible. Especially for the older one. Not sure about the younger one, though."

"Was that really so hard to admit?" she asked with a smile.

"Yes," said Jagged sullenly.

Penny smiled again and offered Jagged a hand. When he lifted one of his up to her she helped him to stand. "Go talk to Anarka. See what she says."

"Now? I don't think I'm ready and I don't want to talk to her if the kids are there, it'll be too much all at once and I don't think—"

"Tomorrow then. When they're in school. So it'll just be you and Anarka. I'll drive you and drop you off." And make sure you actually go in to see her, added Penny silently to herself. She didn't trust Jagged to actually follow through unless she made him. He was such a baby sometimes.

Jagged sighed. "Fine. Tomorrow. I'm going to go make a giant sundae for me and Fang now," he said as he walked into the next room.

Penny shook her head and went back to her room to look over Jagged's schedule to see how she could make some room for him getting to know these kids, if they ended up being his.