So this has been sitting in my notes for the last two hours and idk— i saw someone mention this hc ONCE and then ran with it;; Slider ml im sry lol.
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Ron and Tom are hanging out, maybe a little tipsy, Ron more than Tom and Ron just kinda sets the bottle down and goes:
“Can i tell you something?”
Tom, assuming it’s about to be a piss poor joke or something stupid responds, “sure, what’s up?”
Ron’s quiet for a real long time before he sighs, puts the bottle between his knees and confesses;
“I think I got a girl pregnant.”
Tom sits up almost immediately and is like “You WHAT?”
and Ron just confesses to this whole hook up thing, a dumb party, it was fun but now he’s getting constant calls from this same girl.
Tom is gobsmacked and immediately is like “You need to find out for sure— This isn’t— Ron that’s not…”
But Ron’s just like “Nah…i’m not— i can’t man. I can’t.”
and Tom is insisting he should at least confirm,,, he owes her that— nevermind the fact Ron initially kept this from him.
Never mind that it took Ron getting even just slightly drunk for him to confess—
Nah. Never mind all that.
Ron, mostly just to get Tom off his back is like “okay— alright fine i’ll talk to her tomorrow.”
Except,, he doesn’t.
That was a lie to get Tom off him.
Few days later, Tom asks and Ron lies. it’s “Nah. She wasn’t pregnant…just a false alarm.”
Tom wants to believe him— really he does. He tries giving Ron the benefit of the doubt but…
Somethings off…
But he has to let it go…at least for now.
Fast forward to years later, Tom is out back with Pete and Bradley and Jake…
and they’re just kind of talking about family, even though it’s not really a subject Tom particularly likes, it brings Bradley comfort so it’s totally fine.
That’s when Jake casually goes, “At least you knew your dad…got pictures of him. Mine dipped before I was even born.” He sips his drink and pauses “I mean, My biological dad did anyway, had a stepdad from day one.”
and something inside Tom just kind of jerks. He can’t say why, but before he can stop himself he’s asking “Your mom ever tell you about your bio dad?”
Jake shrugs, “Said something about being Navy…mentioned how he pretty much ghosted her when she realized she was pregnant and was never seen again.”
Tom’s stomach twists.
It’s a coincidence. It has to be, there are hundreds of shitty navy men who would abandon their kid…and Ron said she wasn’t— and that he—
His head hurts now, he’s spiraling down a rabbit hole that may not even exist.
He’s making a mountain out of a mole hill isn’t he?
Or…does he trust his gut instinct that something isn’t right?
The rest of the night, Tom’s ridiculously quiet.
He keeps it from Jake, from Bradley and definitely Pete.
He has to think. He has to… to piece the timeline together? Or maybe get information first?
What the hell is step one?
It’s not like he fell off with Ron…But while Tom continued to climb, Ron… settled. He reached Commander and then called it quits, wanted to travel Europe or something, was tired of being tied down so at the end of his extension, Ron stopped while Tom kept going.
Time naturally drifted them apart; not completely but it went from daily conversation to occasional.
Tom never meant for it to happen but…Time zones and work, kind of placed the bricks for him.
After a few days of spiral, Tom finally catches Jake again.
It’s in their kitchen, He invited Bradley and Jake over for dinner.
He’s cutting cucumbers for their salad and Tom casually asks;
“Just, out of curiosity, what’s your mom’s name?”
Jake’s hesitant to tell her at first, not because he doesn’t trust Tom but because it came so left field.
“Why you asking?”
“Curiosity.”
“Oh…fair enough,” and Jake confesses.
Something Southern and charmin’ probably.
Scarlett.
Tom lies about an Aunt of his having the same name, finding it fascinating.
So he has a Name. Great.
But is Jake wearing his mamas last name or his stepfathers?
Dammit.
So dinner goes on, and later that night during dishes, he asks another question, tries to frame it carefully but his hearts racing.
“Your mom ever tell you what your biological dad did in the Navy?”
Jake’s washing dishes and he freezes.
Shit.
He’s onto me, Tom thinks.
Jake’s casual.
“Aviation I think…which drove her up a tree when I started hinting around about it…”
God no.
No no no.
Okay. Just another coincidence right? Has to be.
But it’s not.
See, Tom is smart. Scary smart and he’s good at timelines.
He’s also apparently part teenage girl because he starts deep diving on the internet.
Sure, Social media didn’t exist in the late 90s the way it does now, but people aren’t above posting throwbacks.
Tom starts with what he has access to.
Facebook is easy, Sliders his age— Old people love Facebook so he starts combing through albums and photos and he finds a photo from that night.
That one party they went to down in Texas in January of 1988. He knows it’s this party because he remembers that brown leather jacket Ron was wearing.
Bingo.
He combs through pictures from that night Ron reuploaded…or posted.. or— whatever the technical term is for posting existing photos onto social media for the sake of a “throwback”
and in those photos is one where Ron has a girl perched on his lap, big fluffy blonde hair, red lip…
Tom doesn’t remember her— or that photo being taken but he makes a note of it.
He starts again, this time on Jake’s facebook in the off chance he’d find a photo of his mother.
Takes some digging but he finds a photo on Jake’s facebook, posted a year or so ago.
Restaurant photo, one taken obviously from across the table, a birthday picture.
Blonde hair, though this time in waves; sensible considering it’s no longer the damn 80s.
softer red lip.
Tom finds the caption, mentions his mamas 58th birthday.
And oh…? She’s tagged.
Bam. Scarlett Seresin.
Tom must be insane. He has to be— he HAS to be.
But fine.
He follows that tag over to her profile and most everything is locked behind privacy settings which is sensible.
Perfectly really, and while Tom is bold he’s not THAT bold to outright request to be friends with someone in this way.
Hes never met the woman in person either… it’d be weird wouldn’t it?
But there is something about social media that happens to be public, especially on facebook.
See, every profile photo a person has had is usually public.
It’s a long shot but— he was guilty of it too. Changing his to a digitized upload of a photo from the late 80s. He did it, perhaps Scarlett has too.
He finds the automatic album facebook makes of all the profile pictures a user has had.
Some reuploads because technology can be confusing, some with holiday frames; one with a football frame and then—
It hits him in the chest.
There on his fucking computer screen is an older photo. A photo of a woman, dated October 21st 1988 at the bottom, a photo of a photo obviously; but it’s there.
That same fluffy 80s blonde hair, though no red lip.
Seated in a hospital bed, holding a bundle of what only sensibly resembled Jake.
He’s gone off the deep end now. There’s no way—
He’s decently smart, Tom settles the tabs side by side; comparing that woman in the hospital bed to the one from that party photo and—
It’s the same girl.
The woman perched on Ron’s lap in that party photo from Texas is Scarlett.
The woman.
In that photo.
Is Scarlett.
Scarlett is Jake’s mother.
And—
He doesn’t want to believe it but the evidence is there.
Ron Kerner is more likely than not, Jakes deadbeat biological father.
And Ron lied about it.
His Rio. His backseater. His partner in the sky and the name beside his on that plaque—
Lied. to. him.
Tom isn’t sure what to do with himself at first. He just sits there in his office, staring at the photos, somehow trying to mangle Scarlett’s face into not matching.
But they are. The difference being nothing more than outfit, setting and a lack of red lipstick.
He can’t tell Jake— but he also can’t confront Ron guns blazing;
He’ll deflect won’t he? just like he did 32 years ago, when the whole thing started.
Jake did mention a stepfather too…He showed no interest in really wanting to dig into his biological dad, right?
That didn’t happen.
But the realization is too much for him to hold and keep in.
So he tells Pete.
He calls him into his office and
“I’m going to sound insane when I tell you this,” Tom starts.
Pete shrugs, “What else is new?”
Tom scowls, “no listen to me— thirty years ago, I was with slider and— I don’t remember the details or why we were drinking but he was kind of tipsy and he told me he thought he got a girl pregnant. I told him to follow up with her, and he told me he did…”
Pete is nodding along “okay…that’s reasonable, where’s the insane party?”
Tom turns to the computer, first showing Pete the party photo, “It starts here. That’s Ron, he posted this photo— throwback photo from a party we ended up at in Texas in January of 1988.”
He clicks over, pulling up that old profile photo of Scarlett and he can see it.
Pete’s face visibly changes, the gears are working a mile a minute.
He swallows, “Are you— are you implying Slider is Jake’s dad? That Slider….lied to you?”
Tom rubs at his face.
It sounds even crazier out loud.
“Is that not the same woman?”
Pete leans closer, maybe too close to the screen and he looks back and forth before he sighs.
“No…that’s the same woman alright…”
He stands back up and looks down at Tom, “what’re you gonna do?”
Tom doesn’t know.
So he’s honest…unlike Ron.
“I don’t know.”
Pete tries to argue that Jake deserves to know
“I mean come on…you’re in contact with his biological dad! He should know!”
Tom protests, “He’s had a stepdad since day one. He may not really care about his biological father Pete. Even still…It could just be a coincidence.”
Pete stares.
“Coincidence? Really?”
And maybe it’s less that Tom doesn’t want Ron to be Jake’s dad and more he doesn’t want to accept that Ron lied to him 32 years ago.
Because friends don’t— they don’t LIE to each other like that…right?
And that’s when it really occurs to Tom— Now? there is no right option.
There is no winning here.
The whole thing goes beyond a double edged sword now.
Because now he knows and now Pete knows.
Ron is Jake’s father.
Ron abandoned Jake before he was even born.
Pete then offers a plan; one he hates more than anything.
Because Bradley is not a pawn— he’s a living, breathing person who shouldn’t be brought into something like this.
Pete proposes that maybe Bradley can hint around and get a feel for how Jake feels about his biological father.
If maybe he has an interest in finding him or not.
But Tom can’t— he morally and ethically cannot let Bradley become involved in this.
He shouldn’t even be involved in this. He’s not involved…or he didn’t mean to be.
So what’s Tom’s plan?
To hold it and wait.
Military tend to be very good at “hurrying up and waiting” it’s a speciality really.
He waits.
Because if Jake’s world is stable, who is he to go and shake it?
If Ron is living at peace with his wife and other kids, who is he to ignite a flame and burn it all to the ground?
Morally, he wants to.
Tom wants to go in guns blazing on Ron. He wants to call him up, tell him he knows and demand answers but he doesn’t.
Because Ron will deflect more than likely— and it will destroy Jake’s entire world.
So he does nothing about knowing, at least, for now. Maybe the universe some time in the future will open that door and when it— if it does, Tom will be ready.