Mother Mother

I was doing this for Shane. I was doing this because Shane wanted me to. I wasn't doing it or any other reason. I didn't want to do it really. I mean sure, I wanted to see if anything had changed, but I didn't have some weird thing where I wanted to hurt myself. I was doing it because Shane wanted me to at least try to fix things.

This was why I was right outside my parents' house. In the car Shane and I owned. Putting off walking out the car and ringing the door bell.

A lot had changed since we had gotten married. For one, I was about seven months pregnant. I didn't work at the diner anymore. Although, Gus said if I ever wanted my job back it would always be open. Nic and Dylan split up again, but he had been trying to charm her back into a relationship so I was pretty sure they would be back together within two weeks. All of Connect 3 had moved to Vegas. After Shane moved, Nate followed and moved in with Laura. They thought that they could then continue to write music and as Shane and I got a recording studio put into the basement in our new house they could record their songs and send them to their recording company. They didn't tour anymore though, but as long as they kept producing music, they still had fans. They would probably have fans forever. Jason moved as he wanted to be with his best friends and after about two weeks of living in LA without them, he found himself pretty lonely. It all seemed too perfect, that's when I was reminded of my old life by Shane. I knew that things would never be perfect with the parents that I had.

This prompted a discussion with Shane about how it was unfair that I had met all his family and yet he hadn't even met my parents. He knew all the shit that went on between us, but he thought that maybe they had changed, and they probably wanted to hear from me. I knew they wouldn't have changed, but I humoured him. If he wanted to meet the fuck-ups that were my parents then so be it.

I was scared. Jesus was I scared. I hadn't seen my parents in almost four years. I didn't even know what to expect. I didn't know if they'd be happy to see me or angry at me or anything. It was just weird.

"Come on Mitchie, they're just your parents." Shane spoke up after we'd been sitting in the car for almost half an hour.

"Don't even say that. You know what I went through with them."

"Yeah, but you've got me by your side now."

I sighed before I thought it through. I did have Shane, and there wasn't much they could do with him there. Especially considering I was pregnant and no matter what kind of parents they were to me, they would never kill someone, let alone an unborn baby.

"I guess we better go in then. If we wait out here any longer they would probably notice. Its only twelve, they can't be that drunk yet."

"Surely they would have gotten help by now."

"You don't know my parents like I do."

"Come on Mitchie, you're talking yourself out of it."

"Of course I'm talking myself out of it, last time I saw my parents I was seventeen, they were drunk and I was about to runaway."

"Right, I'm getting out the car, and I'm going to meet your parents. Join me if you want but I'm pretty sure I would look ridiculous if I was meeting them without you." Shane opened his door and pulled out of the car. He stretched as he stood up properly and I could see a line of flesh of his pelvis, including a sliver of happy trail. Oh damn it; maybe he would reward me later if I did this. Yeah, I was still in the horny stage of my pregnancy, although maybe that was just my husband's effect on me.

I decided to get out the car with my night's possible prospects if I did this. I walked over to Shane's side and he wrapped his arm around my shoulders.

"Don't worry babe, I'll be right by your side the whole way, they can't do shit to you." He whispered into my ear with a reassuring squeeze.

We made our way to my old front door and Shane pressed the door bell as I was almost completely catatonic. I heard murmurings and then some footsteps before the door opened. It was my mother; my least favourite out of the two.

"Oh God, I thought we'd gotten rid of you long ago. I see you're knocked up as well. Who's the dad, someone off the street?" She looked at me in disgust. She hadn't changed. Her hair was still limp, her face was still old and downturned and she still smelled of liquor.

"Lovely to see you two, mother."

"Don't talk to me like that you insolent child."

"I could say the same to you, and I'm not a child anymore. Are you going to invite us in?"

"Maybe, if you tell me who this is." She said, gesturing to Shane.

"This is Shane, my husband. Now can we come in? Its rather cold out here and as you said, I'm knocked up, so staying out here won't do any good to my baby."

"Fine, come in, whatever." She left the door open as she returned to the living room. Shane closed the door behind us and I waddled into the room my mother had entered seconds ago. Shane followed. The house hadn't changed at all from what I could see. Although there wasn't all the alcohol bottles lying all over the floor like there used to be. Seems someone decided to do some housework for once.

We sat opposite my mother and she looked at me in distaste.

"How did you get yourself a husband?"

"He came into the place I worked one day and eight months later, here we are."

"Trust you to get married after knowing someone less than a year. Did you marry her just because she's pregnant? Are you even the father?" She said, finally directing herself in Shane's direction.

"Of course I'm the father. And I married her before I knew she was pregnant. I love your daughter Mrs. Torres, more than anything or anyone. Say what you want but nothing's going to change that." He spoke in a resolute tone.

"Even though she's a slut and will probably leave you and the baby as soon as it's born?"

"Don't you dare say that about her, you may be her mother but from what she's told me, you don't deserve that title." She glared at my other half before redirecting herself back to me.

"I suppose you want to see your father." I nodded my head. "He's upstairs in your old room, which is now his study. The idiot finally decided to finally get himself a job." I stood up and without another word, left the bitch who had once carried me in her womb for nine months. You couldn't believe we were even related, let alone mother and daughter; we were so different. I told Shane to stay behind as he followed me into the corridor.

"No, I'm going to be with you every step of the way, just like I said."

"Please Shane; if he's gotten a job then he should be clean, and if so then I want to talk to him alone."

I knocked on the door to my old bedroom and heard a voice I hadn't heard in four years yell "come in". I did just that. My father seemed to be the only thing that had changed. My room certainly hadn't. He was sitting at my old desk which was right next to my old bed. So much for it being his study. My dad, unlike my mother, smelled and looked completely clean and he looked younger than he did when I left. My daddy was back.

"Daddy," I whispered. He turned and looked at me. His face was covered with a look of shock.

"Mitchie?" He couldn't believe I was there. "Mitchie is that really you?"

"It's me daddy." He crossed the room quickly, although it was an extremely small room compared to what I was used to. The new house was rather big, despite my contempt at having a larger house than necessary. He gathered me up into his arms and squeezed the life out of me.

"God I missed you." He kissed my forehead like he did when I was a child. "I'm so sorry for everything your mother and I put you through, baby girl. I love you, please don't doubt that."

"Never daddy, never."

"I shouldn't have let the alcohol guide me like that. But I'm clean now. Your running away made me realise how bad I was. I'm so so sorry."

"I forgive you daddy, I forgive you." I wiped at the tears I had only just realised were falling.

"I don't know how you do; I was the worst father to you."

"But you're still my dad." We pulled away from each other and my dad wiped the rest of the tears on my cheeks.

"What are you doing back here? I thought you'd well and truly gotten rid of us."

"I could never do that. Shane wanted to meet you and mom."

"Who's Shane?" He asked in interest.

"My husband."

"You're married? How long have you been married?" He was nothing like my mother, who vilified me for being married at such a young age. He didn't judge me.

"Um, about five months."

"Five months? I can't believe I missed my only daughter getting married."

"Don't worry about it, we didn't even plan it. Shane came to my work one day when he was supposed to be on tour with his band – you might have heard of them: Connect 3 – and he just asked me to marry him. And we did that night, in a 24-hour chapel by an Elvis impersonator." I paused, before realising that what I said probably made no sense. "I live in Vegas. I have so much to tell you daddy."

"How about I meet this Shane of yours, save him from your mother and we go out to dinner? You can tell me all about what I've missed then."

My dad was back. Sure, he couldn't really make up for all those years he hurt me. But he was still back. And he would hopefully be a good granddad to my child. I didn't care about my mother. She had always been vile to me. But having my daddy back meant the world to me.

I had to thank Shane for dragging me back to my childhood home. If he hadn't done that, I wouldn't have reconnected with the man who used to always read me bedtime stories when I was a child. If it wasn't for him, our baby would only have Shane's side of the family to spoil it.

I wasn't the one who was going to be rewarded that night.

AN: I FINALLY WROTE IT! All in the space of a few hours as well. As I currently write this AN, it is 1am on Monday the 15th and I am watching The Half Blood Prince. I honestly don't know what I'm going to write next. It might be nothing. I will probably be inspired again after CR2 but I have nothing right now. Or do I? There's something I'm not telling you, but I'm not going to tell you until it's all sorted. I enjoyed returning to these versions of the characters, I missed them. This is the end of the line for this Mitchie and Shane. This one shot was more about Mitchie and her parents then about Smitchie, but there's some in it. I hope you enjoyed it. I love you all. R&R