Author's Note: I love Switched at Birth and have wanted to do a fanfic for a while, but the right inspiration hadn't struck! This is probably one of the only ones I'll do, but I enjoyed writing Emmett's experience putting up Bay's poster. I thought it was sweet that he did that! I love the Bemmett pairing, and ABC Family better not ruin it!
Disclaimer: I don't own Switched at Birth or any of its characters, ABC Family does. The Toadies own "Possum Kingdom", and I'm sure someone else owns Deafenstein, but I'm not sure who it is! This is just my interpretation of Emmett and his decisions.
Emmett clutched the poster, looking down on the parking lot below. Was he crazy? He was beginning to think so. Bay made him do weird things, like run from the cops and want to try speech therapy. He'd never been this rebellious before.
As he sat and stirred the glue, he let his leg swing off the side of the platform to the rhythm of "Possum Kingdom." He kept an eye out for the police, who seemed to have this billboard on their radar and had almost managed to catch him the first time. He was glad he'd gone back for Bay's poster—the one he now planned to hang as her birthday present.
Emmett knew how Bay felt about his relationship with Daphne, so he wanted to do something outrageous for her in order to compensate for the perfect—and admittedly slightly boyfriend-like—gift he'd gotten for Daphne. It had been almost six months ago, before he had met Bay, so that might win him some points. But not many.
He winced, cursing mentally, and imagined what Bay would think when she opened his present. A scarf might not look like much compared with signed Deafenstein memorabilia, but he hoped she would be patient enough to let him carry out the rest of his plan. After all, he was being pretty damn awesome, if he did say so himself.
She better be excited when I show her this, he thought, smoothing the first section of poster onto the billboard.
He worked for nearly two hours, trying to make the mural as perfect as it could possibly get, and only stopped to rest once. It was hard work, but he was willing to do it if it made Bay happy. His arms grew sore and jittery, but he finished just after one in the morning.
It was all Emmett could do to climb down the ladder and dispose of the bucket of glue before he collapsed on the pavement. He stared up at his—and Bay's—masterpiece, a satisfied smile on his face. It was the best thing he'd seen in a long time, and he could see Bay's hand in the work. It resembled her other Little Girl pieces, but this one didn't involve any weapons.
After looking at the billboard for a minute or two more, Emmett pushed himself up and walked over to his bike. His arms wouldn't thank him for the late-night workout, but he didn't care. The exhilarating rush of putting the whole thing up without getting caught was worth all the pain.
Take that, cops, he thought with a smirk. Putting on his helmet, he took one last look before slipping the poster tube onto his back and swinging a leg over his bike. With a roar he could feel but not hear, he sped off into the quiet night in the direction of his house.
When Emmett stepped into his living room, he didn't expect his mom to be waiting on the couch. He flinched, visibly shocked at her presence, and she gave him an angry look.
"Where were you?" she signed, standing and crossing the room.
He backed away a little, wanting to go collapse onto his bed and not wake up for at least ten hours.
"I was at Jackson's house," he replied, attempting to be calm. He shrugged. "No big deal."
"Why didn't you let me know?" Melody asked angrily. She wasn't as calm as her son, not by a long shot. "You know your curfew is eleven."
"I'm sorry, we got caught up. I won't do it again." Emmett rubbed his fist against his chest, trying to look as contrite as possible. "I'm tired. Can I go to bed now?"
"We'll talk about this later, young man." Melody shooed her son away, putting a hand to her forehead like she felt a migraine coming on. He wasn't the same since he met this Bay, the girl who was supposed to have been Daphne.
Emmett escaped into his room, shutting the door and falling onto his bed fully-clothed. His side still burned from the barbed wire, but he didn't feel like wrapping it up. All he could do was clean it with some alcohol and throw his bloody shirt away.
Once he was back in bed with the light off and the sheets pulled up around him, he thought again about how Bay would react. He hoped she would be surprised and excited by his gift, but she was unpredictable. For all he knew, they'd never get past the initial present of the scarf. She might blow up, like she had when she'd seen his Wall of Daphne.
All he could ask for was a patient, nice reaction. Especially since his mom would be at the birthday party, which already spelled disaster. Bay didn't know that Melody wasn't fond of her, but that could all change if his mom made a scene tomorrow. Of the Sign Language Bay knew, she could probably figure out very quickly what Melody thought of her.
Emmett sighed, puffing up his cheeks and letting the air out slowly. He was in for a wild ride the next twenty-four hours. Even wilder than finding out his best friend was switched at birth and her almost-sister was a rich, intriguing hearing girl. The girls' lives weren't the only ones that changed with that blood test, but he was beginning to think that the whole thing was for the best.
Vowing to do as Bay said and tell Daphne about their relationship, Emmett drifted off to sleep and dreamed of a girl in a pink dress chopping a birthday cake in half.
Yep, his life was totally normal.
Please review! It would be amazing!