Title: Speed Of Sound
Category: Outrageous Fortune
Character/Pairings: Cheryl/Wolf
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by James Griffin, Rachael Lang, TV3 and NZ on Air, et al. No money is being made and no copyright infringement is intended.
Rating: M15
Word Count: 2,318 words
Spoilers: Set preseries/episode one slings and arrows, but contains minor info learned in later episodes.
Warnings: Slight mentions of sex, deals somewhat with miscarriage. Gratuitous use of swearing.
Summary: Twelve moments that changed Cheryl West's life.
Notes: I think this is the first EVER Outrageous Fortune fic written. Ever. :)
cause the world keeps spinning round and round and my heart's keeping time with the speed of sound - Nikki Blonsky, Can't Stop The Beat, Hairspray
one.
She notices Wolfgang West for the first time on the night of their senior ball – she's not supposed to be going, not really, but Jason Griggs was really persuasive when he wanted to be. He comes to pick up her sister (Janette, the weird sister) and doesn't bring her flowers (Jason brings her a corsage, but she thinks that maybe she'd prefer to be kissed like Wolf was kissing her sister).
Three months later, Wolf and Janette are dating sporadically – Cheryl tries not to think about this while she gets stoned with Billy (Jason tried to fuck her the night of the dance but even she's not that much of a slut). He comes over for dinner one night – he sits opposite her and she's sure that he's looking at her when he thinks she's not watching (she's always watching – but she's pretty sure that he hasn't noticed). His foot grazes hers, a light touch that makes her eyes widen and Janette's narrow.
Shit.
Janette dumps him that night – she tries to hide the girly squeal, but Janette glares at her, and she's pretty sure that it didn't work. Nothing's happened, she wants to tell her – she's her sister after all, but there's a tell tale yet that whispers in her mind and then she thinks that maybe he's the one.
two.
The first time she throws up, Cheryl thinks that maybe she'd drunk more than she thought. Wolf stares at her thoughtfully, but doesn't say anything and she doesn't bring it up again. The second time is at seven in the morning – the fucking rooster is crowing and the smell of frying bacon and eggs is enough to make her bolt for the toilet.
A week later, Cheryl comes to realize certain things – she's seventeen years old – her sister hates her, her boyfriend's mother calls her 'slutty pants' and Aunt Flo's fucking late.
Fuck.
When they get their heads wrapped around it, Wolf just stares at her – his face is closed off and she's fucking terrified because if he leaves her now, then she really will be the slut everyone says she is behind her back (she's really not – there was Michael and Billy and then Wolf – three's not so bad in the scheme of things). He lunges at her and her heart stops for the briefest of moments and then he's twirling her around and they're laughing and oh holy fuck she's pregnant.
three.
They decide on Anthony if it's a boy and Elaina if it's a girl (they'd have chosen parental names, but no child of hers is going to be called Theodore, Rita still calls her slutty pants and she doesn't really speak to her parents). Elaina. She knows that her baby's a girl – Wolf thinks it's going to be a boy and she knows that there's a pool going around.
She wakes up in the morning with Wolf's hands resting on her rounded belly and she knows that it's a sweet moment and that she should savour it – but she's seventeen fucking years old and she's pregnant to the guy she stole off her sister. Wolf looks so terrified when she bursts into tears that she can't help but laugh.
Four weeks before Christmas, they're sitting on the porch. Wolf's drinking a beer and she's craving a smoke like fuck, but she can feel Elaina moving around in her and that sort of makes it alright.
She wakes up in the morning with Wolf's hands resting on her belly and she knows she'll never forget this moment for the rest of her life.
God, please, no, no, please, fuck, no.
Her breath hitches and Wolf is yelling for Rita but Cheryl knows that nothing will ever be the same again.
Elaina's not moving.
four.
They spend Christmas on the bay – she doesn't think of the fact that they don't have a tent. She's just away from there and that's all that fucking matters, because if she sees her sister again, she really will fucking kill her. It's your fault Cheryl – Elaina deserved to die. She cries and he cries and then they fall asleep in the car. In the morning, the park ranger taps on their window and offers them a beer. She laughs and he laughs and they make love for the first time since that night. When they make it back to Auckland, Wolf pulls a job. It's not big, not really – but it gives them such a fucking rush that Cheryl knows that maybe things will be alright again. Not the same, but alright.
Three weeks later, she hasn't thrown up – but she's lying on top of Wolf and she sort of likes that he's all sweaty and warm underneath her. Her fingers are tracing patterns onto his skin – she needs to get her nails done and oh shit. Wolf stops speaking and looks up at her – she's looking down on him and oh shit.
The doctor tells her that she's expecting twins – oh fuck – but Wolf picks her up and spins her around again and again until she's dizzy and breathless. They tell Ted and Rita – the whispered 'slutty pants' is heard, and Cheryl thinks that maybe she sort of wishes that the old hag would just cark it already.
five.
At Christmas, they pack up Jethro and Van into the car – Wolf still can't tell them apart and she has no intention of letting him know that Jethro is the twin with the romper that's a shade lighter than Van's. Ted waves goodbye, Rita glares and Wolf backs out of the driveway. The twins cry all the way down to the bay, but they're only three months old and Cheryl isn't sure why they thought this was in any way a good idea.
They get down to the bay and are met by the same ranger they'd run into last year – he doesn't mention the crying and acts like a normal male around the babies – oh fuck I am not picking them up – so she takes pity on him and keeps walking. They set up their tent and it's like a magical off switch for the twins because they finally stop crying.
They fall asleep under the stars, with images of little Elaina settling over their minds and for the first time it doesn't hurt as much as it used to.
six.
When the twins are a year old, Wolf bites the bullet and pops the question. Cheryl thinks that he'd probably meant it to be more romantic but it sort of came out something like this – they'd finished a job and god there was that incredible rush again and he'd just looked at her and then – 'Will you marry me?' Only he'd rushed it and she hadn't had the faintest clue what he'd said – so he'd had to repeat it and she still hadn't quite understood until he'd shoved a ring on to her finger and then she'd sort of grinned and accepted with a rushed 'shit, yes.'
They walk down the aisle and Cheryl's not sure whether this can be classed as the happiest moment of her life. The guests are all pissed, Rita almost spoke out at the 'does anyone object' bit (Cheryl had really wanted that part of the ceremony struck out) but she's married to the man she loves and she doesn't think she'll be this happy ever again.
I love you, he whispers against her skin and she arches her back when his mouth moves over her breasts.
I love you, she whispers into his mouth, over and over while he sinks into her.
The twins are with Wolf's parents – so they grin and smirk and giggle and aim for round two.
I love you, they whisper to each other afterwards, slowly falling into hazy sleep.
seven.
Pascalle is four months old when Wolf starts to come home later and later every day. The jobs are shit but they pay for the necessities – and when he does come home? They sit on the couch and think of everything they're doing right and sometimes she's so fucking happy that she jumps him as soon as they get to their room.
When Pascalle turns one, Cheryl takes her for her routine Plunket check up. She sits in the waiting room and strikes up a conversation with Anne Marie Gibbs (Sparky's sister, but nobody ever liked to mention that because Sparky was a certifiable nut job) while Pascalle crawled circles around Brandon, Anne's son. Anne seems kind of uncomfortable, but Cheryl chalks it down to the disappearance of the league player and cheerfully curses the man who knocked a woman up and then walked out.
She mentions Anne Marie in passing to Wolf who looks like he wants to say something but then Van comes tearing into the room with Jethro hot on his heels and she has to find out why her three year old sons seem intent on beating the crap out of each other.
Wolf closes his eyes and she grins, because now Van is clutching at one leg while Jethro is at the other and they're both begging to be picked up. They fly open again and she's reminded uncomfortably of little Brandon, with his deep baby blues.
Nah, she thinks and laughs. Never.
eight.
The twins are eight when Van manages to get himself stuck inside the chest freezer in Ted and Rita's basement while playing hide and seek with Jethro. When they get to the hospital, all Cheryl hears is oxygen deprivation and possible brain damage. She wants to blame Rita and Ted – god she really wants to blame them but she knows that they love her kids. Pascalle and Jethro sit on the plastic chairs and chatter in hushed whispers. Pascalle's only three, so it's still sort of nonsensical but it still makes Cheryl's heart ache in an odd sort of way.
When Van wakes up and smiles in that way he does, Cheryl upchucks on the doctor's shoes and thinks that another one might not be so bad.
When she's eight months pregnant (it's another girl, she thinks) Ted and Rita decide to move into a little unit and leave them the house. Cheryl really really wants to dance around in happiness but it's a fucking bitch to move when she's this big.
Baby girl West is born two weeks early and looks eerily like her grandmother. Wolf wants to call her Elizabeth, Cheryl likes Tracey and they compromise on Loretta (by compromise, they both shut their eyes and point at a page in the baby name book – Wolf lands on 'L' and Cheryl chooses Loretta). She thinks that it's kind of ironic that Loretta is linked with saints – their little baby girl, she was going to be different, Cheryl knew it.
nine.
Loretta's still a baby the first time Wolf spends any real amount of time in prison. Cheryl writes him letters and sends photo's of the kids – sometimes they're little shits, all four of them but she wouldn't trade them in for anything. Van and Jethro seem to be going through a phase where they loath each other – Van has a new best friend, a kid called Munter (Cheryl really hopes that's not his real name but he seems kind of sweet so she doesn't mind so much).
Cheryl lies on her bed at night and concentrates on how much longer Wolf will be away.
I love you, she whispers into the space next to her and wipes away the tear that falls.
ten.
Van and Jethro are fifteen when Cheryl and Wolf have their first run in with Inspector Wayne Judd. Cheryl thinks he's kinda maybe a little cute for a cop and then promptly pushes the thought from her mind. Not going there, she tells herself.
Van gets expelled (she swore that if anyone ever mentioned why again, she'd murder them herself), but unsurprisingly Jethro sticks with it. Cheryl knows that sometimes she acts like the sun shines out his arse, but he's the first one from either side of their families to make it past fifth form – and god, she really needed this.
Because with the cops raiding the house almost on a monthly basis (not that they ever find anything) and, well, the fucking life they led – sometimes it just felt good to be normal.
Whatever the fuck that may be.
eleven.
At Pascalle's sixteenth birthday, they throw the usual party – she does the yardie, but manages not to hurl immediately. Cheryl cheers while Ted proclaims that she now has the luck of the Wests, but inside she thinks god, I fucking hope not – the luck of the West's tended to involve numerous run ins with the cops and that is not what she wants for her sixteen year old daughter.
Wolf hugs her close during the party and afterwards they have sex – it feels different and Cheryl's not exactly sure what it is.
I need you, he whispers into her ears later – and she thinks that maybe it's that.
She smiles and pulls his arms around her so that they're spooning before pressing a kiss onto his hand.
It's a good different.
twelve.
Wolf's going to jail – four years. Four fucking years. Cheryl wants to laugh and cry all at the same time – four years is a bloody long time.
Shit.
Van and Munter may have, possibly have, messed with the fucking Triads.
Cheryl really wants to cry – but Jethro's having his thing and Loretta's acting weird and fuck, Ted's managed to burn his unit down.
She's had it, she really has. She's not sure how much more of this shit she can take – so she goes to see Wolf and he says something that makes a hell of lot of sense.
Go where the money is or get out.
Cheryl knows exactly what she's going to do.
End.