1990
RIGHT AS JACKIE shut the car door and stepped onto the sidewalk, she saw the unmistakable blond hair of Duff McKagan. He stood in front of two women with his back toward her.
Jackie grinned mischievously and creeped behind him, tapping on one shoulder then moving to the other so he waved his head around looking for her. Finally he turned fully with a confused look on his face until he broke out into a smile. "Jackie!" He exclaimed, pulling her into his long arms.
"Hi Duff." She smiled into his chest. He pulled back after a moment and looked down at her. "Jeez, I was gonna go home to see you when you got here, but I kinda got held up."
"No, that's okay!" She smiled brightly at him. "Damn, you're a sight for sore eyes." He pulled her in for another hug.
"Likewise." She chuckled after he pulled away again. "Oh, and," he leaned in a bit, whispering. "Sorry for telling Izzy... he kinda threatened me so I-"
He snapped his mouth shut when Izzy came beside her with his arm low around her waist. "Oh, it's no problem, really." He said smugly, lowering the sunglasses on his face a bit.
Duff stared for a minute. "Whatever, man."
Izzy looked over Duff's shoulders and widened his eyes, yanking Duff away by his sleeve so they were out of Jackie's ear shot.
"Dude!" He whisper-yelled at Duff. "You fucking told me she wouldn't be here!" He hissed. "I know, dude! I'm sorry, okay? She refused to leave-"
He was cut off by a shriek behind him. Duff whirled around and followed Jackie's line of sight.
Jackie stared blankly as a random woman ran up to Izzy, immediately sliding her arms around his neck and leaving a big sloppy kiss on his lips. This wasn't just a groupie. She could tell.
Everybody went quiet and averted their eyes to Jackie as she stared at the two making out. Izzy kept his eyes on Jackie the whole time, attempting to push the woman off him.
Jackie's mouth fell open a bit as her look of confusion turned to a look of pure horror. She heard people calling her voice and felt a hand on her shoulder but ignored it as the woman finally pulled away, wiping her lipstick off Izzy's lip then following his line of sight.
She glared at the look Jackie was giving them before plastering a grin and approaching her. "Hi, I'm Calliope."
Calliope? Who names their child fucking Calliope?
Even through her tears that she let fall freely, she couldn't resist to make a remark. "Oh, like the goddess of epic poetry or whatever?" She laughed bitterly through her tears.
Nobody laughed but Mason.
"Exactly!" Calliope laughed with her tongue between her teeth. Something Jackie fucking hated. She thought it was disgusting. The type of thing school teachers do when they laugh.
"Great to meet you! You must be a roadie.. or a groupie, or something?" Calliope said, grabbing her hand and shaking it a bit aggressively.
Jackie snatched her hand away and turned around only to be met with Vicki looking at her with sympathetic eyes. It was like a nightmare. The two 'situations' of her two partners staring right at her, one with a burning glare and the other with a disgustingly pitiful look.
Wordlessly, she backed up a few steps before turning and running into the restaurant in search of the bathroom. Her heart was pounding out of her heaving chest and her ears were ringing.
She saw the small restroom logo on a door and made a b-line to it. She smacked her hand over her mouth as she felt bile rising in her stomach.
She pushed open the door, and fortunately it was completely empty as she found a stall and emptied her stomach into the toilet. A few minutes later she heard the door open and tried to shut the stall door, to no avail.
Loud footsteps made their way into the stall, then she felt a hand collect her hair and pull it out of the way. "Shit." She recognized the baritone voice as Axl's. "Damnit, Stradlin..." he whispered under his breath.
"Hold on." He said to her, letting go of her hair and running out to the door of the bathroom. He kept one foot in front of the door so he could still see Jackie as he shouted to the only person he knew with a heart as kind as Jackie's.
"Erin, can you c'mere for a sec?"
A few seconds later Jackie felt an unfamiliar hand rubbing her back. After she was finally done, she whined and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.
She fell back against the wall and finally caught the soft gaze of the person who'd been rubbing her back. It was a woman with long hair, just a bit darker and longer than Axl's. She had a kind and welcoming look on her face. As Jackie gazed at her, only one thing came to mind.
"Her hair reminds me of a warm safe place, where as a child I'd hide, and pray for the thunder and the rain to quietly pass me by."
Now Jackie understood what Axl was talking about.
And now it was time for the floodgates to open.
She let out a sob and fell into the arms of this random woman who appeared. She didn't even hesitate to wrap her arms around Jackie and whisper small reassurances into her ear.
From the moment Jackie stepped out of the car outside, the woman wanted to approach her and compliment her outfit, but obviously a few complications got in the way of that... which she'd also been watching.. and though she didn't know much about the whole situation, she was able to connect the dots when she saw Izzy leave a peck on her cheek before she hugged Duff, then Calliope jumped on Izzy, and Jackie's entire face fell.
"It was so good." She sobbed into her shoulder. "It was so good.." she repeated quieter. "But then he fucking-" she was cut off by a choked sob. "-ruined it."
A few minutes later she was able to collect herself-a little. "Oh, your shirt." She frowned as she pulled away and saw the mascara and tears all over her nice shirt. "It's fine." She chuckled a bit.
"Who the hell even are you?" Jackie sniffled, leaning against the wall again. "I'm Erin." She chuckled, moving next to her.
"Oh, wait..." she pointed at her. "You're Axl's girl, right?" Erin smiled and nodded. Jackie smiled a bit and nodded too. She'd seen a few photos before of them together on magazines.
"You're beautiful." Jackie randomly blurted. Erin ducked her head and laughed. "Thank you, so are you."
"Let's not start lying to each other now, Erin." She laughed a bit. Erin shook her head and chuckled before standing up and grabbing Jackie's hand to lead her to the sink.
"Look... I don't know the full story of what happened out there, but I could tell Stradlin really fucked up. Because I can tell you're a sweet person and you didn't deserve whatever the fuck that was." She said as she pulled a makeup wipe from her purse and began wiping under Jackie's eyes.
Jackie didn't respond, staying quiet while Erin fixed her concealer and mascara.
"Thank you so much. Really." Jackie pulled her in for a hug. She wasn't ever really this lovey-dovey with any female friends, but after she drenched Erin's shirt in snot, tears and mascara, she doubted she minded. "No problem at all, babe." She smiled.
"Now come on. You look hot, use it to your fucking advantage and let's go torture those hormonal men." Erin slid her leather jacket over her shoulders to hide the mascara stain, leading Jackie out the door. "I think I'm the hormonal one." She joked, referring to her mental- and physical breakdown a few minutes ago.
forget izzy and slash I ship Erin and Jackie <3 also, normalize axl not being a total douche in every ffic.
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destinesia | gnr
Fanfiction⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ A book about a band from the strip, slowly rising to fame while accidentally dragging Jackie Turner up with them. She waited for something. Anything that told her not to go. Not to run from her problems again, but this time her subco...
