Always Something There to Remind Me (A Black Lightning Jen X Khalil Fanfic)

Chapter Twenty-Four- Confessions

Chapter Twenty-Four- Confessions

Jen's POV

Jen froze mid puff, and smoke streamed out of her nostrils as she coughed out a lungful of air. "I know I didn't hear that right. TC, tell me I didn't hear that right," she spluttered, stubbing out her joint in the ashtray on her side table. She felt like she had been pushed into a bathtub filled with ice cubes, so great was her shock at TC's words.

"I've been wanting to tell you for the longest, but first you said I shouldn't mess up your good time when you defeated JJ, and Khalil said not to tell you so I- I folded, Jen!"

Getting to her feet and crossing over to her bed, Jen flopped down on her back, glowering at the ceiling like it was involved with the fuckery TC was confessing. "Folded like a fucking lawn chair! You better explain this to me like I'm five, because I'm bout ready to fly over there and- ugh, TC!"

She shook her clenched fists in the air, her pulse skyrocketing. A small voice in her head was anxiously cautioning her against losing her temper, but Jen paid it no mind. She wanted to lose her temper, wanted to lash out at a suitable target. TC wouldn't even let her smoke in peace so he deserved every last bit of anger Jen had stored up.

"I'm so sorry, Jen," TC said, sounding like he was about to burst into tears any second. Jen's lips tightened into a grim, humorless smile. Good. Cry more. "It's been eating me up, for real."

Kissing her teeth loudly, Jen said, "Clearly not enough because you should have been told me. You're the whole reason Khalil's been treating me like I'm crazy! He won't even help me find Angie because he can't deal with me asking him if he remembers me or Anissa!"

Her insides tensed with despair as she remembered the gentle way Khalil had gazed at her before handing her a slice of pizza, and him jokingly fake whispering to her about Philky not being allowed to eat messy food near the computers. He'd treated her like an ordinary person, a friend. They'd laughed together, sharing a small moment of peace and normality in her life. And then he had backed off, and the resignation on his face as he refused to help her with her search for Angie, it was almost as bad as a rejection.

"Trust me, I wanted to. But Khalil told me not to tell you, he wanted you to think he'd just left Freeland and was living his life. He didn't want you to live with the knowledge that part of his memory was wiped because of you and your family," TC replied gingerly.

A frown flitted onto Jen's face, and she found herself wishing this was a FaceTime conversation. TC probably didn't want to look at her while he was spilling the tea, but she would have given anything to slap the taste out of his mouth through the phone screen. He was playing bald-headed games with her because what was this madness? "What the heck do you mean by that? Me and my family- why would we have anything to do with his memories being wiped?"

"I erased his memories of your family to stop him from ever coming after you guys and killing you," TC blurted, ending his little hurried speech with a deep breath that Jen heard over the phone.

Through gritted teeth, Jen bit out, "You better start from the beginning and don't start going off topic because I swear the next time I see you; you'll be in a world of pain."

"Okay." TC took another deep breath and exhaled it in a whoosh as Jen gripped a fistful of her pillow, imagining she was wringing TC's neck. "Khalil initially hit me up to help decrypt the laptops he found when he rescued Grace from being kidnapped. There were other people he rescued as well, and they were all hooked up to laptops." His tone turned contemplative. "It was weird, Jen. Their brains were being used to farm cryptocurrency and other things."

Jen let out a warning growl which vibrated her vocal cords, pictured TC cowering in fear on the other end, and felt a little better. "Do I need to know all this technical mumbo-jumbo, or do you need to continue telling me what I'm asking for?"