Hello Everyone This is an another little Dalton Oneshot that I was writing and it focuses with the Brightman twins. This story focuses on what would happen if something was to rip the Tweedles apart and what that would mean.
Please Let me know what you think I will hopefully update with another chapter from Evan's point of view.
Disclaimer-I own nothing, Just Brianna, Amelie, Edward and Evanna
I am beginning to put together a Dalton Slash Drabbles fic, so please let me know if you would be interested in reading that.
I have tried to keep this as chronologically accurate as I can so...
As Always Please Read and Review and please let me know what you think!
Broken and Bent and Yet Once Whole
Ethan and Evan Brightman's relationship over the years including the breaking of the Tweedles and the long road home-everything belongs to CP Coulter.
Chapter 1-Ethan Brightman
December 2012
It's one of those days when Ethan feels the bone-weariness of post-graduation slipping into him like icy water. He has nothing to do. He's working at his father's company and trying to earn a degree in business (because Brightman's do that whole hard-working degree thing…) and he's dating a girl that his father set himself and his brother up with.
It's not that Amelie isn't a bad person. He knows that she's sweet and funny and cheerful with blonde hair and blue eyes and her sister (who was supposed to be set up with Evan) is the same if not in love with her girlfriend Jenna. It's just that life has become a ritual where he does the same routine every morning and he feels weighed down-it's like suffering a mid-life crises before even hitting twenty-five.
Evan had been the opposite. He had loved going to college, had loved his Accounting degree and was happy in New York.
Looking back it seemed stupid when he realised that he hadn't seen it coming. Seen how his brother and girlfriend looked at each other. Looking back it was the most stupid thing he had ever let pass by.
May 2017
He's sat at the wedding reception-his wedding reception, and he feels nothing. All he wants to do is to continue with his plan which is to down himself in bottle after bottle of champagne.
He hated the idea of marriage, he hated the idea of at 23 being settled down and felt like screaming. His father had put the pressure on him to marry Amelie and he had caved. But still when he looked at the couples like Kurt and Blaine, Shane and Reed, Spencer and Merrill-strong and dependable and then Julian and Logan and Derek and Sebastian and Logan's brother Austin and his best friend (but so into each other) Clay who were relatively new and yet so in love, and even people like Justin and Charlie and even little Cyrus Huntsman and Kalen White the Windsor and the Stuart.
But still he feels nothing for his wife and the darkness seems to grow in his mind that all of this has been a terrible mistake. That nothing is ever going to be the same for him, that he has wasted his life without really living it.
He just wants to get drunk and then dive head first into the oblivion that is the darkness.
November 2019
Two years into a depressing marriage Ethan gets a call from his wife to tell him that she and his brother are at the hospital and that it's time. The friendship between Amelie and Evan is stronger than the relationship between him and his wife even when she is nine months pregnant with his twins.
He races to the hospital only to find Evan clutching his baby boy, handing him off and then explaining gently that something has gone wrong and both his wife and his baby girl are in distress. It's sickening how he worries more about his daughter than his wife, but that is true.
When his daughter is pulled out of his wife's bleeding and torn body she's smaller than Ethan had thought that babies could get and once he has a quick meeting with his wife he goes straight to the incubator and selfishly lets his brother be the one to pick up his wife of the floor and tell her everything is going to be alright.
She wants the babies called Collin and Amelia after her sister and his father.
He flat out refuses. He calls the babies Edward and Evanna, doesn't care what she thinks and quietly talks to a lawyer.
It's time he got his life back.
July 2020
The twins are one when the accident and the incident that changes Ethan's life happens. He walks into it, it's insane how little he really knows when he sees his wife and his brother screwing in his bed. He really couldn't help the hysterical laughter bubbling in his throat when he sees Evan pull his pants on and try to explain himself.
It takes a great amount of restraint not to do more damage when he throws his brother and his wife out of their house and locks the door, to call his solicitor.
He has to deal with his father of course. The deal with his and Amelie's marriage is a big profit for his father and the fact that Ethan's planning divorce and a full custody arraignment doesn't help his father's business profits. He slams the phone down with ease and goes to play with his children who seem to be the only thing that are keeping him sane right about now.
Then one night he gets a phone call of his sister. That in itself is strange because ever since ditching her rich fiancé Oliver and running off with a poor cop Audrey never really rings anyone anymore.
She's talking which is even stranger and her words are half clumsy and half formed but after a bit she regained herself enough to tell him that Evan and Amelie have been in a car accident.
When he arrives he knows that his wife (who he has never really loved and who he know knows has never really loved him) is dead.
It's a sickening sort of relief.
When he walks into Evan's hospital room his brother watches him his blue eyes hard with grief and something inside Ethan snaps.
"My kids don't have mothers because of you" he hisses and Evan closes his eyes the translucence of his skin standing out against the red scratches down his face.
Evan lies there and lets him rage at him and lets him call him names his eyes still closed as if he finds the whole world and Ethan exhausting. "I hate you" he screams just to twist the knife in, just to scratch the surface of Evan's exterior. His head is just one big mess of betrayal and hurt and anger though the latter isn't directed so much at his brother than at himself but it feels so good to get everything out.
One thing is true however, when he walks out of the room he doesn't know when he'll see his brother, and that somehow word will get around that the Tweedles are irreparably broken.
January 2021
It's been one long year since his wife died when his father pays him a visit. He tries not to notice the way his lip curls when he sees the dust on the table and the mess and the wincing because Edward is teething and is crying really loud.
"You know" he says running a finger around his coffee mug as Ethan watches him tiredly "Mr and Mrs Fall have offered to take care of things" Ethan blinks at the mention of Amelie's parents.
"Take care of what?" he asks with a slowly dawning horror, a sinking feeling that he knows where this is going. His dad shrugs "They'd like to adopt the twins" he says "They've offered to expand their offer in the company if you sighed over your parental rights"
Ethan blinks at him "You cannot be serious" he says his voice dropping several degrees in tone and his dad sighs "I wasn't before" he says his voice quiet "But now Im not so sure" he looks Ethan square in the eye "You're not coping son"
It takes all his restraint (nearly all of it gone over the years) not to throw his father out with a bloody nose, he waits until he has gone with a word to "think seriously about it" when the severity of the situation catches up with him.
He doesn't think about what to do next, just reaches for the phone and calls the one number he really didn't think he would ever use.
"Hello Logan" he says biting his lip "Its Ethan, I… I…really need your help"
March 2026
It's been nearly six years since his twins were born and there both the cutest little things ever. Even if he is slightly biased, Logan (he will admit) did a fantastic job of helping Ethan and his children become a ghost. Derek as a DA pulled a favour and managed to get any custody settlement disbanded and Ethan is now living as a single father and High School Business teacher in the lower area of Boston and he finds he loves it. He loves the city and he loves his life.
He misses Evan though, he is loath to admit, while a part of him wants nothing more to do than never see his brother again, another part sees so much of him and his brother in his children, he knows Evan's married and has two twins himself but everytime he picks up the phone he stops himself feeling sick.
Because what is he going to say? A part of him knows he should be furious, with both his brother and his father who betrayed him using the things in his life that he knows he should have been better at, but a part of him over time has recognised that he wasn't perfect in the breakdown of his marriage and his wife's affair and he does bare some responsibility.
He tells Eva and Ed the bare minimum, he tells them about Evan and their mother but he doesn't embellish anything, it's easier for the both of them that way.
It's when he's in the make-up department on the ground floor of Harvey Nichols having treated the kids to one of those hot chocolates on their day off that makes them sleepy and full when he realises that he can't see his daughter.
And that fills him with a panic that makes him shake. He hoists Edward up onto his hip and opens his mouth ready to yell when Edward (using what Ethan suspects as twin intuition) shouts in Ethan's ear "Evie" and that's when Ethan follows his gaze and realises that Evanna is sat on one of the Bobbi Brown make up chairs chatting animatedly to one of the artists.
"Evanna" he half yells storming over and plucking her out the chair pressing a kiss into his blonde hair and ignoring the pang of sympathy he feels (well not for his parents but) for the people that raised him and Evan as children he wonders if every parents feels like they've aged a good decade in the space of seconds when they realise they can't see their kids in front of them.
"Sorry" the brunette answers her hair long and loose over her black slim-fitting dress "I did wonder what she was doing; she said she wanted to be pretty" Ethan lets out a shaky laugh but the second he drops Evanna down she off into the lipstick session and Ethan resigns himself to buying her something if only to get away.
The artist who introduces herself as Brianna seems to understand the predicament he's in and settles about finding a lip balm that Evanna can have and it's only when he looks down at the receipt later that night he realises that she's scrawled her phone number next to the smiley face she drew on.
It makes him laugh if nothing else.
April 2026
It's surprisingly enough Julian who makes him get his arse in gear to ask Brianna out and he realises on the first date when there both laughing over pasta at something idiotic the twins did that he really enjoys this. The last half a decade or so have been dedicated to the twins (who thankfully love Brianna) and he hasn't gone on a date in a long time. And he's missed it.
When he eventually nearly a month later mentions his father is the millionaire world-renewed genius Collin Brightman he winces internally but Brianna just looks at him blankly "Am I supposed to know who that is?" she asks and Ethan chocks out a bizarre laugh and buys her another drink.
August 2026
He tells her everything. It feels so good to offload information about his life what he's been bottling for years. He tells her about Amelie and Evan and the rest as there in bed together and she traces patterns on his hip chewing her lip thoughtfully.
"It's not your fault" she says eventually "I don't think it's your brother's either… I think it's the life you were both living in" and Ethan realises after some time that she is right.
It's the Legacy, it happened with Logan, him, his brother, Derek, Justin, Spencer, Blaine and Shane, Dwight and David, there all shattered pieces of a puzzle that is bigger than the rest of the world, spoilt little rich kids who lacked the one thing that they really needed. Something their mom and dad couldn't come home for a business trip and readily give them.
Love.
And he knows there and then, he can love his children. And he can love Brianna.
January 2032
The twins are nearing thirteen and Ethan asks Brianna to move in with him. The great thing about his girlfriend is that she knows he needs to go slow. The quick pace of his marriage was so disastrous and ended with him such a mess that he has to do it slower this time. Brianna also understands (in her own way) that Ethan may never ask her to marry him. He wants to, but the thought of him standing up that aisle again makes his head swim.
But this is also the turning point. This is the part where he starts getting in touch with his friends. His always (surprisingly) been friendly with the Stuart Trio, but one day he runs into Blaine and Kurt, Evanna becomes friends with their daughter Lexi and later with Dwight's daughter Fay. He begins to wonder the merits of moving back to Ohio, enrolling Edward in Dalton like Jay and Dale and David's son Jamie. He could stick Evanna in Dobray or maybe even a public school in a complete difference to his own upbringing.
Brianna smiles at him and says she thinks a move would be fun. Ethan kisses her so hard he can hear the kids retching from the kitchen window.
Then one day he gets a message in the mail that Dean Winters is retiring and Elizabeth Ramsey is becoming Dean of Dalton, (really there could be nobody better) and he decides to make a trip to the school on one of the open days.
Dale is there, Jay, Jamie, Wes's son Nate, Nick and Jeff's son David and Spencer's son Elijah gives them the tour. The school brings back so many memories that Ethan chokes slightly and Brianna grips his hand.
She's does the same thing later when everyone is outside and the tour is over and following her line of gaze Ethan feels his mouth go dry. Because right there standing with a lanky red-head and two strawberry blonde boys maybe a year younger than his own two, is his brother. Evan.
He's taller than he remembers, but looking at him is still like looking at himself in the mirror.
Then there eyes meet and his blue eyes widen and Ethan does the only thing he can think off, that looking back is one of the stupidest things he has ever done.
He runs.
September 2023
He moves to Ohio and enrols Edward into Dalton. He puts Evanna in Dobrey and settles down to teach in Dalton himself. He teaches business and he takes a great delight in walking into the staffroom and seeing Murdoch and Howard's look of horror.
He and Brianna are happily together with her earning more than she had ever done in New York and the kids coming home on the weekend.
Then one day theirs a knock at the door and when he opens it he sees his brother, his twin brother, his best friend. They stare at each other the Brightman's the Tweedles the chaos creators of Dalton and suddenly Ethan doesn't feel the burning rage or hurt when he thinks about his brother, he just feels exhaustion and a burning desire to laugh.
"Coffee?" he asks and Evan's face breaks into a grin, Ethan smiles back and he opens the door to his house and his brother walks in for the first time.
There not broken, just bent and maybe, just maybe they can learn to be one again.
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