A Little Sane

Chapter 71

TaTyana smiled brightly.

"Oh. My. God. Mercedes... he will love it... no doubt."

Mercedes noticed Jerome was in a cheerful mood as he was taking his tie off. He carefully placed it on the table. Mercedes tilted her head.

"What's got you in such a great mood?"

Jerome took off his jacket and started unbuttoning his shirt. He turned to Mercedes was a carefree grin.

"You know.. I had a great time at the wedding. No one knew who I was. Nobody was afraid of me. They treated me as a normal man. They asked me about sports and other guy related things. I was uh.. also asked about you."

Mercedes noticed his smirk. She laughed slightly and pulled him closer to her.

"You were?"

Jerome carefully placed her hair behind her ear and cupped her cheek.

"Of course I had nothing but wonderful things to say about you. I was asked about normal life. I was normal. Not the Arkham Asylum lunatic. Not the leader of the Maniacs. It felt really nice. It was a breath of fresh air. I didn't have to be defensive."

Mercedes ran her fingers down his cheek with a smile.

"I'm so glad you had fun... that's wonderful.."

Jerome could see the slight sadness in Mercedes' smile. He gave her a concerned look.

"Doll face what's wrong..?"

Mercedes shook her head.

"Nothing. It just makes me so happy.. to see you happy like this.."

Jerome gently played with her hair and shook his head. 

"No.. something's wrong.. I can feel it. Did something happen?"

Mercedes looked at him slightly confused.

"You didn't see anything..?"

Jerome was even more worried. He cupped her face and pulled her slightly closer. 

"Mercedes what happened? Did someone hurt you?"

Jerome's eyes began wondering her body frantically. Mercedes gently grabbed his chin. After lifting his gaze she shook her head.

"No... well... just my feelings.. But I don't want to bother you with it.."

Jerome set on the edge of the bed and pulled her to sit in his lap. He wrapped an arm around her waist.

"Oh, no. We are talking about this. I'm your husband. You can tell me anything. You know that. What did they say about you?"

Mercedes shook her head again which confused Jerome.

"It was TaTyana's coworker.. She wasn't talking about me... she was.. talking about you..."

Jerome gave her a look of reliefe. 

"Oh, it was just me. I thought they said something about you."

Mercedes looked at him sad and frantically shook her head. She held his chin.

"No it's not okay.. It hurt my feelings that someone was talking about you the way she was.. She said horrible things about you.." 

Jerome tilted his head. He noticed this was important to Mercedes.

"What did she say?"

Mercedes sighed.

"She was talking about your face.. She asked what happened to you and.. I made up some fake accident you had at work.. She said you should feel digusted with yourself and that you should stay at home. She told me that I should have left you after the accident.. then she started calling the kids brats.. I was so angry in the moment that I literally almost beat the fuck out of her.. TaTyana was standing there too and she was going to let me.. I just.. I don't appreciate people talking about you like that... most people.. don't even know you..."